Poison the Color of Crimson
by Kirami-chan
Summary: This is a fanfic for Kazama x Chizuru, I hope that everyone likes it! Chizuru is isolated by him, then something changes drastically...
1. Chapter 1 - Poison the Color of Crimson

\- Chapter 1 – The Demon in Dreams

Chizuru had to hurry to the other Shinsengumi; after all, Yamazaki had left it in her hands to deliver the message. And as she ran, she thought about what might happen if she doesn't make it in time. Would everyone blame her? Would she carry the burden of this through the rest of her life? All she knew how to do right now involved running and delivering this message.

But, right as the breath almost deflated her, she arrived safely at Hijikata's side and the message got across as well. But after that, Hijikata told the troops to regroup at Ikedaya, and Chizuru had run a few more blocks before they all arrived at Ikedaya, so she kept up her pace with the others until they came upon the face of the scene. Hijikata ordered his troops to go in after the others and help push while Hijikata dealt with the Aizu Clan.

As part of the Shinsengumi, Chizuru rushed in to help the injured comrades who had fought in battle with Great Spirit. After tending to a wounded soldier, heard something coming from upstairs and made her way through the corpses and up onto the stairs. A Choushuu soldier suddenly appeared from the hallway and held up his sword, preparing to impale the young woman. When all of a sudden, a katana slipped in between her and the warrior and impaled him instead.

Chizuru spun around to meet the face of one of her comrades, Saito "Hurry and get up to the top floor, I'll support you from down here."

Chizuru granted him a small smile of thanks and then whipped back around to head to the top floor. She crept up the stairs with her hand on her katana for any open chance of attack, but thankfully, nobody arrived to take her head off. And as soon as she was only a few feet away from the sword-clashing room, she scooted over to it and opened the door just a crack to see who exactly was inside at that moment.

What she witnessed made her head reel with the excitement of the spring wind. Okita was clashing with a blonde-haired man with a white robe, and being pushed back by him as well. But this man seemed different to Chizuru, like he wasn't a comparison to any of the other enemies they had faced before that night. As Chizuru sat there, the man with the blonde hair raised his sword and cut a clear path across Okita's chest.

Unconsciously, Chizuru threw open the door and in a panic dashed to Okita's side and shoved him away from another one of the man's fatal attacks. The blonde-haired man's face melted into an expression which was full of shock from the sudden interference.

Chizuru then quickly stood up and rushed to stand in front of Okita to block further attacks. She slipped her katana out of her sheath and made a battle stance of defense. The man faced her with an irritated look on his face while pausing for a moment, and thinking. When his thoughts were done, he raised and pointed his sword at Chizuru who stood shivering before this frightening warrior.

Down below, Okita looked up and managed to cough out "Chizuru, run away, fast…"

As a quick response to Okita's pleas Chizuru said "I'm sorry, but I can't follow those orders right now."

The blonde man smirked and then a frightening and isolated feeling covered her from head to toe, like a black mass of shadows, and they were surrounding the man as well. The man didn't seem to react to it at all, in fact—

Chizuru's eyes went wide with shock what she witnessed next 'His hair, its turning platinum, but how… why… his eyes switched colors….?'

Chizuru suddenly realized the silver mass dangling in front of her face as if it had been there the whole time. 'My hair is turning colors too?'

All of a sudden, the black masses of shadows dissipated as it was interrupted by the noises of the Shinsengumi's soldiers marching up the stairs for battle.

A man who looked older than the one before her stepped out of a hole in the wall and spoke to him "Kazama, let's go."

With an irritated sound, he turned and spoke to the other man "Let me clear something up." After he said this, he turned back Chizuru and spoke "Why do you help these weak humans?"

"W-What are you-?" Chizuru responded in a way that seemed to baffle Kazama greatly.

"Kazama." the other man seemed to be growing irritated.

"I know, let's get going." Before jumping down from the building's balcony, he took one last glance at Chizuru and disappeared without a trace.

After what seemed like decades, the Shinsengumi infiltrated the small room that now had no trace that anyone was in it besides the bloodstains and broken walls. Chizuru dropped to her knees, for she couldn't comprehend the thought of that man for the life of her. What were those black masses that crept in and out of him? What was that isolation and fear she had felt only minutes before? She curled up in a ball and hid her face in her pants. She knew she wanted to cry, but something inside her told her not to, and only in moments was Hijikata by her side calling her name.

"Chizuru, are you alright? Are there any wounds on you?"

Upon hearing his voice, Chizuru's hands leaped towards his chest and then held tight on his robe. She lay there against his chest breathing heavily as he wrapped his own arms around her. And for the first time during this mission, she felt like she was in a truly safe place in his arms. Like a never ending haven. And she got lost in it and lost the power to keep a true hold on reality. And slowly yet sweetly, she drifted off to sleep.

While she slept, the man named Kazama seemed to infiltrate her dreams and bring nightmares instead. And no matter how hard she would try to wake up, the screaming wouldn't stop. And then her nightmare became a memory, the one of Kazama jumping off the balcony. But it was different, around the pair nothing but them seemed to be in their own little space and time. And right before he fled from the balcony, he turned and voiced a few words with no sound. And all of a sudden, a growing mass of shadows started crawling up her body, unaware of her pain. She could hear words being called out to her, but she didn't want to leave, she wanted to know what he had said. But just like any other dream, it had ended.

"Yukimura, hey, Yukimura, are you all right?" It had been Yamazaki who had woke her up "I was just passing when I saw your door open and inside you were sweating and panting."

With a blank expression Chizuru only responded with "My door was open?"

She looked up towards and passed Yamazaki at the cherry blossoms which were only now beginning to bloom. And quietly she whispered to herself "The nearest bridge…"

"Huh, did you say something Yukimura?" asked Yamazaki in a concerned voice.

"Oh, no, and I'm okay now. I'm sorry that I interrupted whatever you were doing before now." Chizuru rose from her bed and gave a deep and sincere bow. Yamazaki did the same thing back to her and went on back to delivering the message to Hijikata.

\- Hijikata Toshi –

"Sir I have the message that you've asked for." Yamazaki said.

"Very well then, enter Yamazaki." ordered Hijikata.

Yamazaki slid the door open and excused himself to the seat across from Hijikata and sat down folding his hands over his legs.

"The man that Okita mentioned, it seems that he's been caught walking around Kyoto before. But only for business, and it also seems that he's associated with the Choushuu."

"Are they allies?"

"It would seem likely."

"Damn it!" Hijikata began "He seems to be a capable enemy too."

"Indeed."

Hijikata scratched the back of his head with concern, as if it would help him find answers. Then he finally lay down his hands and looked up at Yamazaki "Thank you for delivering the message, you are dismissed"

Yamazaki got up to leave, but right before he stepped out through the door he said "Hijikata, you better go check on Yukimura. On my way here, I had to stop by her room and wake her up from a nightmare. She still seems shook up from last night."

Hijikata peered up at Yamazaki for a few seconds before there was only a shadow through the door to look at and finally looked down and said "Very well."

After a while of folding through papers, Hijikata stood where he was standing and reached for his outer robe and sash. The robe he was already wearing was the one he had slept in the night before, so it didn't seem comfortable to go walking around in. Then once he was done slipping on his clothes, he tied his sash with a small golden string and began walking down the hallway towards Chizuru's room.

'I wonder why she was having nightmares, I know that that must've been a frightening experience for her, but she had also been witness to many other incidents with us just like this. Why do the nightmares begin now?'

Hijikata in spite of his pride decided to think about this at a later time and check to see if Chizuru had yet to leave her room. 'It had only been about half an hour so I'm sure if she isn't there she would be having lunch with the others.'

When Hijikata arrived at Chizuru's door, he said "Chizuru, are you in there?" After a few moments of silence, he said "I'm letting myself in." Though he did do that, Chizuru was no longer inside her room and Hijikata as he had said before that she just must be eating with everyone else. However, he was slightly concerned about this factor. So instead of returning to his headquarters, he headed down to where everyone currently was. His thoughts eroded away the sounds around him, and soon enough he found himself running through the halls, desperate for the evidence that she still remained within the headquarters. The minutes that it took for Hijikata to reach the dining area seemed like decades to him.

Once he arrived at the door, he threw it open and shouted "Is Chizuru in here?!"

The only response he got were the surprised faces of all the Shinsengumi Captains and his own fading echo. After scanning the room and found no Chizuru, without shutting the door he raced down the hallway towards the main gates. The captains chased after him but couldn't keep up quite as well.

\- Yukimura Chizuru –

After Yamazaki left, Chizuru found herself standing on her futon reviewing the contents in her dream as if they had just occurred in reality. Then all of a sudden she heard a voice calling out to her. She looked around herself, making sure no one had really snuck in without her noticing. No one seemed to be loitering around so she listened closer to the voice that was calling her. After a while, it stopped calling her name and it started repeating and repeating over and over again a destination, a place to go to. Was this an order, or a request?

Frighteningly enough, Chizuru cupped both her hands over her ears to keep the voice from talking, but it didn't work. The voice seemed to be stuck right smack in the middle of her subconscious. And when she opened her mouth to scream no sound came out. It was like someone was messing with her vocal cords.

"Sshhhh…." the voice would say.

She reached and fought to take a hold of the door in front of her, but then she fell to the ground in a fit of confusion and pain. The room became enshrouded in darkness, consuming more and more of the space around Chizuru until there was nothing left.

When she opened her eyes, the darkness had not yet disappeared, but something new appeared, a man. His hair shone like the radiant sun when it sweeps across the sky in search of night. His robe was made of a white silk that only the finest silkworm could have thread. But his eyes seemed to be his most outstanding feature. They shone like rubies that had been sitting in a silent stream under a bridge of the same hue.

"The bridge, I need to get to the nearest bridge. I have to find him…." She then drifted back into unconsciousness and woke up on top of the futon with a killer headache. Then she realized why the voice had tormented her that way. She quickly ran down the hall towards the main gate and tripped somewhere halfway. She knew that someone was there, and she knew she had to see what he wanted, otherwise, the voice would continue tormenting her. She slowly walked against the wall to see if anyone was near the main entrance. With no one in her way, she made a final sprint towards the gate.

Right before she stepped outside the boundaries of headquarters. She heard a voice call out to her it was stern, yet filled with so much concern for her. But she knew she couldn't stop running even now.

But before she even landed another foot, a man's strong arms came from behind her and pulled her backwards. Her head tucked in, ready for the pain as she may hit the ground, but she never did. In fact, she had landed in somebody's lap; it was warm and comfy, almost like that of pure cotton. Yet more fierce, and once Chizuru realized that the man that had caught her was panted she twisted her head around to greet the face of an exhausted Hijikata. Eventually, even the rest of the Shinsengumi had surrounded them.

Hijikata lifted his face, and it wasn't the usual soft monotone she usually saw either. "What the hell were you thinking, Chizuru?!" After that, he began shouting more complaints like 'where you headed.'

Eventually, Chizuru squeaked the one answer she thought may stop Hijikata "Th-The Bridge…." Hijikata heard this and continued listening "The nearest bridge, the voice told me to—"

"The voice, did you recognize the voice?"

"N-no…"

Hijikata made one more face of concern for Chizuru, then stepped up and said "Everyone should follow me." And as told to, the Shinsengumi's captains and Chizuru followed after Hijikata. But, the entire time Chizuru seemed to have a pained expression on and continued staring down at her feet.

After they arrived at a room, he told Heisuke to fetch for Sannan and Captain Koundo. "Now, I want everyone to pay close attention, and give me any ideas of what could've happened."

"Uhm, what exactly are you talking about Hijikata?" asked Sano.

"It has to do with Chizuru; I found it suspicious because of what Yamazaki had told me. He told me that on his way to reporting to me, he had to stop by Chizuru's room because her door was open and she was sweating and panting in her sleep. Are you aware of this, Chizuru?"

"Uh, no, not that I was panting…"

A moment later, Sannan and Koundo walked in along with Heisuke following after them. Hijikata then explained everything that had taken place from his point of view, and continued questioning Chizuru.

"While you were sleeping, did you happen to be dreaming about anything in particular?"

At these words, Chizuru searched the floor for answers and finally brought her head back up and said "Yes."

"Please explain the dream in detail."

"Well, I was in my room, and then everything got consumed in shadows…" Chizuru covered her face with her hands but kept a small peephole in her fingers.

"Seeing as how uncomfortable she looked Hijikata said "You should go rest your head, get your mind off this stuff."

"—there was a man."

"Hmm, a man, what did he look like?"

"He had silky blonde hair and a white robe with another black one over it… And his eyes…" Chizuru nearly jumped at this aspect "His eyes were the color of rubies, but at the same time, they were tainted with bloodstains… And, they seemed to be able to tell my very thoughts."

Chizuru's eyes went wide with terror as she realized who he was "Ka-zama it's him, the one from Ikedaya!" Without her comprehension, she let loose a bloodcurdling scream which shook the very grounds of her soul. Then, she felt a warm hand on her shoulder, she looked up and stared at Hijikata's face with tears streaming like hot springs from her eyes.

"I know this might not help, but you should go rest in your room for now. I'll issue a guard to watch over you."

"Th-Thank you…"

And just as she was told, she dismissed herself to her room. But, when she got there, she didn't feel like she should fall asleep. As if that voice was still there, just waiting for the right chance to launch it's poisonous yet again at her neck.

\- Hijikata Toshi –

"Well?" Hijikata gave everyone in the room a serious face, which told them that maybe this wasn't just a coincidence.

Sannan raised his hand and after Hijikata gave him permission he spoke "Do you think she could've been poisoned?" he stared at Hijikata then back down at the floor and began to speak again "I've heard of some very famous people who would poison someone while they're asleep and it paranoid them to death."

"That sounds like it, but I don't think that was the objective. After all, they could've just gave her some physically harmful poison and be done with her. Plus, he told her to go somewhere, the nearest bridge."

This seemed to prick an interest in Saito so he offered "Captain Hijikata, I know of such a bridge not far from here. Please allow me to take a few soldiers down there and see."

"Very well, prepare to leave immediately."

As he was told, Saito slowly got up and without a second glance left the room to gather the troops.

Then Okita spoke up with an intense tone of voice "Hijikata, please allow me to accompany Saito. If it truly is the man from Ikedaya, then I'd like to show him how much a blade to the chest can hurt." He said this with a smirk.

"I absolutely refuse," he said sternly "you are in a terrible position to even be thinking about revenge like that. Please take in what your body can take and think harder about these things."

In a fit of anger, he thundered out of the room into the hall where his footsteps echoed more so than it did inside the room.

"I-I'll go after him." Heisuke offered.

Hijikata nodded at him, and then as if on cue, Heisuke got up and swiftly left the tense room.

Hijikata sighed and then said with a depleted voice "I'll leave it at this today supposing we have already begun to take action." He nodded to the rest and then they all returned to their study.

\- Saito Hajime –

As Saito left headquarters, he noticed that many people were avoiding making eye contact with him. There was also an abundance of whispering, Saito just happened to hear a few comments from the concerned-faced citizens.

"The poor Shinsengumi…"

"…he doesn't know what he's in for….."

"…..don't look…."

All of this just made Saito want to reach the bridge sooner. Without noticing, he soon started walking a tad faster than his troops. But, as soon as he noticed he slowed down again.

Finally, it seemed to Saito that it had taken centuries to reach the bridge where his final hopes prayed. But as soon as he reached the climax of the wooden bridge, his face turned from a calm look to a face flushed with anger. It was as if the devil suppressed inside of him had been released from its chains. He stomped the ground not once, but twice just to make sure it stuck.

For right in front of him was a beat up katana with a red cloth swaying in the breeze. The katana was piercing through the vast blue and white clothing which was no doubt the clothing of someone in Shinsengumi. It was stained with that of crimson, the blood from one of their soldiers. Probably from the night they attacked Ikedaya.

Saito lifted the cloth, and underneath it all was a noted, also pierced by the katana. It seemed that whoever placed it there wanted them to see it.

He took the note in his hand and lifted it up for his eyes to see. It read:

"This man died with a spear in his throat, don't forget that as long as you have that woman, nothing but misfortune will gather at your end."

Saito took the uniform and stuck the note in his pocket. He then tore the sword from where it was imbedded in the wood and walked down next the gentle stream. He planted the sword in the ground and held his hands together in a prayer.

"We appreciate your help in our path of justice." He whispered.

He stood back up and then let the other members of his troop pray for the lost warrior as well. And once his business was done, he left and headed back towards headquarters. And on the way there, he could even hear his own men whispering about the way he acted back there.

He made that a note to not lose his head during the next battle with the man who he knows will appear any time again to take Chizuru.

\- Chizuru Yukimura –

Later that night, Chizuru waited until she was sure that everyone else had fallen asleep, and then took a black cloth and wrapped it around her to make sure she didn't attract any attention in the dark. She knew that no matter what, if she didn't meet that man at the bridge, then another nightmare would spring into her dreams.

A minute before she left her room, she slowly and quietly slid her door open to make sure no one was out patrolling the hallway. Then very quietly, she stepped outside of her room and while keeping an eye on her surroundings, she slide her door shut. It was difficult for her to sneak around without almost getting caught by the people on patrol.

Then, all of a sudden she heard the wood behind her creak, but when she whipped around, her hand on the hilt of her sword, nothing remained there. She knew that from now on, sneaking out of headquarters wasn't going to be easy. Somebody was watching her. She turned back around and almost rounded the next corner when hands dashed out from behind her and covered her mouth and pushed her back with the force of a hand on her stomach.

She was being held against a man's chest, Chizuru was doing her best to find an exit, but then overhead she saw a small light moving through the hallways.


	2. Chapter 2 - Night of the First Meeting

Chapter 2 – Night of the First Meeting

Chizuru brought her hands up and squeezed the other hands which now held her prisoner in their grasp. She tried and tried again to remove the man's hands but they wouldn't budge. And finally, she saw the light moving throughout the hallway. She stood still, hoping that her culprit wouldn't make any movements as well, if he didn't notice the light already.

Then, when the light had completely passed by, the stranger freed her of his grasp and moved back only a little bit. With that warning, Chizuru also took action by running forward for a small distance then turning back around, her hand on the hilt of her sword, ready for a possible future battle. But as soon as she saw the face which the stranger owned she took her hand off the hilt of her sword and gave an expression of bewilderment.

"O-Okita, what're you doing here?"

"Hey there Chizuru, I was on my way to find you."

"Me—"

"I was going to ask you for a favor, but it looks like you beat me to it."

"Beat you to what?"

Okita looked at her for a second, then put a hand on the back of his neck and said "Listen, I want you to take me to the bridge from your dreams."

Chizuru started to raise her voice, but then only lowered it a little bit "But in your position—"

"My position right now doesn't bother me one bit, but me not showing that Kazama guy who's boss does." He looked down at her yet again worried face and then stared back at the wall before them "Look, I just need you to take me there."

Chizuru stared hard up into his eyes, and saw that he was serious. She also realized that even if she refused, he probably would just follow her secretly to the destined meeting place. Finally she shrugged and looked up at him and said "I'll go, but I want you to make sure that you won't push yourself too hard."

As a response to this, Okita smiled and nodded pointing ahead down a small hallway, littered with nothing but the shadows. He then started to swiftly run down that hallway, so as Chizuru would expect, he was telling her to follow him.

'Maybe he knows a secret way out?'

As soon as she caught up to him she asked "Uhm, Okita? What exactly is down this hallway?"

"A wall," he smiled as he saw that Chizuru's face was drawn out with confusion "It's sort of my own little secret way out of here when I want to be alone." And then he turned his face towards Chizuru, winked, and lifted a single finger to his lips "So this is our little secret, okay? If you tell anyone, I'll be sure to kill you."

Chizuru laughed at his usual joke and admired the way he could be so carefree in a situation like this, escaping from headquarters and all. Then she realized the mistake in his words and whispered "But Okita, how is a wall going to assist us in leaving?"

He smirked then said "You'll see."

When they reached the end of the hallway, Okita rounded the corner, and then called out to Chizuru to mention that it was safe. When she came out, she realized that it had not been a joke to Okita at all. There really was only a wall at the end. The only other objects that she saw were a few bushes, a well, and another series of hallways. She stepped out onto the grass where Okita was and watched him while he tapped the ground with his feet.

"You have to make sure the ground is sturdy for this." He mentioned.

"Sturdy for what, Okita what are you planning?"

"Watch this."

In the first split second, Okita swiftly shifted himself into a squatting position and then threw himself up and onto the well. Chizuru's eyes weren't fast enough to comprehend what had just happened but took it as a job well done and just gave Okita a plain smile.

Okita smiled back and lent his hand to her to help her climb up and onto the well, but Chizuru then wondered how this well could hold this much weight. Then, when she scanned Okita for clues, she realized that he wasn't on the well, but hanging off the side of the wall.

'How does he manage this?' Chizuru's face went and clouded up with bafflement.

But right when she decided to lay off the topic, he lifted Chizuru by her waist and quickly, swiftly, and quietly, leaped over the wall and landed on the other side, still holding Chizuru in his arms. In bewilderment, Chizuru just sat there and gazed up at him, and without her noticing, started blushing.

"Do I have something on my face?" Okita chuckled.

After realizing what she was doing, Chizuru jumped out of his arms and looked down at the ground before her as her face flushed to the color of a cherry. "I-I'm so sorry!"

"What, there's nothing to apologize about Chizuru." He then looked up and said "Okay, now Chizuru, I helped us escape, but now it's time for you to lead the way."

Chizuru looked up and Okita, and then nodded and started walking into the night.

\- Hijikata Toshi –

"Jeez, what do those two think they're doing?!" Hijikata vice Commander of the Shinsengumi had just caught Okita and Chizuru while they were escaping. They were heading down the dark hallway when he had spied them from his futon. He got up and looked around again before heading on after them, but just in case he decided to bring along his katana.

Now, when they leaped over the wall, Hijikata could've but decided not to stop them. Not out of concern, but out of curiosity. He wanted to know why they were escaping so late at night. So after heading back to his room, he grabbed his Shinsengumi robe and headed out through the main gates to follow after them. But, right before he left, Yamazaki appeared and called out to him. "Commander, be careful at night, there are some dangerous things out there."

Hijikata turned around and said "What do you mean dangerous?"

"It seems that some of our night patrolling soldiers have been transforming and killing people."

And, with only one glance back at Yamazaki, he left without another word.

\- Chizuru Yukimura –

As Chizuru led the way through the darkness of night, she kept looking in through small, narrow alleyways as if looking for something. After a bit, Okita noticed and asked "Are you worried about something Chizuru?"

Chizuru paused and turned to look at Okita as if this wasn't the first time someone had asked this. "Well, it was when I was a kid…around 6 or 8 years at the youngest. And one time, my father decided to go out at night, I didn't know what he was doing, so as children normally get, I got curious. So I went outside to catch up to father, but he wasn't anywhere to be seen. So I went out further, because I couldn't stand my father leaving like he had recently, so I walked past an alleyway, and a couple of men had caught me. They kept going on about selling me off as a slave. And then another kid came out with a sword, a real sword. He had blonde….." Before saying the next syllable, there was a scream further up the path.

Chizuru and Okita immediately took off in that direction, anxious to see who had screamed. And sure enough, when they got there, a woman with a still screaming baby boy was laying lifeless on the ground before them. Chizuru picked up the baby boy and cradled him in her arms. "Sshhh, sshhh…." She eventually consoled the baby but soon after Okita yelled to Chizuru.

"Chizuru get down!"

Chizuru being a bit slow turned around to reveal to herself the face of a red-eyed silver-haired man. She just barely spared her body the fatal blow of his sword, before her shoulder took most of the brunt. She fell backwards making sure that the impact only affected herself and not the baby.

But before the beast could get in another deadly swing of his sword, Okita jumped in with his katana and blocked the line of steel.

"O-Okita, are you—"

"After pushing the Rasetsu away he shouted "I'm fine, but make sure you get that kid to safety!"

"R-Right, I will!"

As she was told, she obediently ran out past the Rasetsu and towards the river. And right before the Rasetsu ran after her, Okita through a pebble at him which hit right the middle-back of his head.

He turned around and looked at the pebble's pitcher "I'm your opponent." Okita said with a smirk. Then, the beast jumped towards him, putting on a toothy grin for the final performance.

Chizuru ran at least a quarter of a mile ahead before she had to rest again in the shade of the cherry tree next to a bridge.

'The bridge….' She thought, looking up at its path.

She walked up onto it sliding her hand along its support, and then sitting down with the baby under the shade of the cherry tree looming over them.

By this time, all the noise seemed to have scared the baby, so it started crying again.

Chizuru shifted the young boy in a more comfy position then settled herself in as well.

And then after what seemed like hours, the breeze picked up a bit, and Chizuru's eyes opened to the sudden sensation crossing her skin. Before her stood a man, she couldn't quite make out who it was though because their shadow stood up against the moon's light.

"Okita, is that you?" Chizuru whispered.

"Chizuru Yukimura."

The voice of the man made her jump and scoot backwards a bit, still sitting down of course. The man leaned away from the moon a bit with a playful grin on his face. This time, Chizuru could make out the fair features of his character. His hair was a silky soft blonde color, and he wore a robe of white, with an outer black robe over it. But his eyes seemed to be the most mesmerizing features; they were made of a crimson that reminded her of rubies that had been smoothed over and over in a river, just like the one below her. He brought his gaze to rest on her shoulder, which was now covering her in the crimson she was thinking of.

"How's your shoulder?" he said sarcastically with a smirk.

Chizuru brought one of her free hands up to her shoulder and swept her fingers across her skin, trying to detect any sign of a final wound. After seeing Chizuru's face tense up, he spoke again with a splendid grin.

"So it's already healed, has it?" he looked a bit closer at the blood infatuated area before clarifying.

'How did he know, who is he?' Chizuru's thoughts were reeling through again and again in her head.

After Kazama saw the bundle in her arms he asked "What is that?"

Chizuru glanced down at the baby and then brought her head back to focus back on him "It's a baby boy."

"Is it yours?" Chizuru was surprised at how fast he shot questions at her before even acknowledging them first.

"N-No, and—"

"Hmm, what do you want?"

"W-Were you the one who sent me that nightmare?"

Kazama smiled at this with entertainment then answered "A nightmare, I'd call it a greeting between Demons."

Chizuru started shuddering a bit before saying anything else "Demons, by that, do you mean those—"

"—monsters?" he said.

Chizuru's eyes went wide at how angry he seemed to have gotten "Y-Yes."

Without Chizuru realizing it in time Kazama had grabbed her hand and forced her to stand up. And to make his point clear he brought his face up to hers close enough that Chizuru was able to feel his breath on her skin. When she opened her eyes from the shock, and looked deep down into the soul of Kazama's eyes.

Then he said "Don't ever say that about us."

Chizuru kept staring for a moment, before she realized how truly close their faces were.

While struggling, she shouted "Let me go!" Then, without a few seconds to recuperate, the big warm hand that had just been holding her captive let go as another stronger breeze passed over her. And as she fell backwards, she was caught by someone else, another man it seemed.

So when she was sure that she was safe, she opened her eyes again. Before her was a man with raven-black hair whose violet eyes made the moon's beams look lame. After bringing his sword back from out in front of him, he looked at Chizuru checking her for wounds.

"Jeez, I thought that Souji might try something like this, but you?" then from out behind Hijikata came Okita.

"Well…" Okita said scratching the back of his head.

He let Chizuru back down and turned his main focus back onto the enemy in front of him. "I didn't expect to see a man trying to woo a lady this late at night." He said with a smirk.

"Don't worry," Kazama began "I was just taking my leave."

And then, with another breeze, the cherry blossom petals blew away with him, and just as swiftly as he left, the cherry blossoms floated downstream.

After analyzing to see if his surroundings were safe, he turned back around to face Chizuru and Souji. But his face of anger quickly changed when he noticed the baby that Chizuru still cradled.

"Chizuru, why do you have a baby?"

Chizuru looked down with a waterfall of sadness exporting from her eyes "We found him and his mother, but, his mother had been slaughtered by…." Chizuru stopped herself from saying the last word and looked up at Hijikata.

"The Rasetsu we killed from earlier, huh?"

"Yes."

Hijikata put down his head for moment to think about how things stood. Then he said "As everything is right now, we have no choice but to look after it."

Chizuru's face brightened up at this fact, and then came up and placed her head on his chest in an attempt to hug him.

For the remainder of that night, Chizuru paid as much attention to the boy as possible and tucked him into her bed to sleep.

The next morning things got a bit complicated with the rest of the Captains. After Chizuru woke up, she dressed herself in her men's clothes and inspected herself for any amount of dirt. Then, she looked down at where the baby still slept and smiled gently at its sleeping face. But then she sat the baby up, gently tilting it from side to side trying not to make any intention for it to cry. She got a clean blanket from her laundry stack and rolled the baby into a ball with it.

She couldn't help not giving a sweet morning kiss on its cheek, it was just too cute. Then she stepped out into the hallway and almost accidentally ran into Yamazaki. Yamazaki was just about to apologize right when his face met with the drowsy face of the baby. Yamazaki paused and backed up a few feet then bowed and said:

"I wish you happiness." His sweat instantly told Chizuru what he was thinking. She squatted down and shouted while blushing "It isn't what you think!"

She then quickly jogged past Yamazaki and into another hallway towards the breakfasting room. Then, when she opened the door to the room, she got more surprised faces than she thought she would. Then Hijikata walked up from behind her and also saw what was going on.

Then after what seemed like hours, Hijikata had explained what had happened the night before, and many of the people who looked shocked calmed a bit.

Nagakura asked "Okay, I get that you guys found him and all, but does he have a name?"

Chizuru looked yet again sadly upon the baby and responded "No, the mother had already been slaughtered by the Rasetsu when we got there."

Sano then looked a bit cheerful, and said "Well then why don't you name him, Chizuru?"

"Oh, well I suppose that I could do that…" Chizuru's thoughts went back through her life trying to think of a name that would fit this baby boy.

Everybody stared at her, intently waiting for an answer from Chizuru, then her face suddenly perked up and she smiled one of those sweet smiles that you would normally see on a woman's face when she got proposed to.

"Well, there was this one time my father told me about my grandfather who was also a soldier. Apparently he was the last one standing in the very last battle of one of the great wars. He said his name was Kentaro."

Okita spoke up and said "Well what do you know, that actually sounds like a fitting name for him."

Even Saito decided to place in his own comment about the naming "Being named after a noble warrior is very fitting."

Heisuke added "Wow, you're even getting approval from Saito!"

Then, before anyone else could say anything, the baby boy opened his eyes and looked up at Chizuru and said with a small, soft voice "Mama….."

Everyone's eyes followed the location of the voice and stared in wonder at the baby's words.

"Does Chizuru really have that much of a resemblance to the mother?" Sano asked.

"Uh, no, I didn't look at all like the mother!" Chizuru could feel her cheeks starting to go red.

"Oh, then do you think those could be his very first words Chizuru?" Heisuke chimed in.

The baby repeated it, and then the only thing that the others did was laugh at the humor in it.

Hijikata closed his eyes and pictured an image in his head 'Chizuru as a mother, huh?'

And as a remainder of the day, the others took turns looking after it while Chizuru went out on her daily patrols with the Shinsengumi.


	3. Chapter 3 - Set Fire to Kyoto

Chapter 3 – Set Fire to Kyoto

In the next few weeks after Chizuru found Kentaro, she spent most of her time searching for any more family he may have had left. Unfortunately, no one mentioned their daughter or sister going missing. In the usual defeat, Chizuru headed back towards headquarters with Sano, holding the child in her hands. Everybody considered him to be at least 3, so Chizuru has been working with him to take his first few steps on his own.

While walking back, she whispered to Kentaro "Looks like me and you're in the same boat, huh?"

Sano noticed this and patted Chizuru's head lightly, like when he pats Kentaro "Good things happen when you smile, remember that."

Chizuru smiled reassuringly and nodded to show that she understood. Then she stared back down at the baby and smiled and even wider smile, to show that she cared. And then eventually they arrived safely back at headquarters, with Kentaro wrapped up in his new clothes.

Nagakura walked up to the gates to greeted them as they walked in. "Hey Chizuru, Sano," Nagakura leaned a little closer to Kentaro and then said "And hello to you to Kentaro!"

With Nagakura being so close to his face, Kentaro seemed to misunderstand that this was a friendly confrontation, and not a request to jump into battle naked. And so Kentaro started to whimper a bit, and then buried himself into Chizuru's chest.

"Shinpachi, look what you did now, you scared the poor thing!" Sano said sarcastically.

"I-I did not, you liar!" Shinpachi said as recoil.

"What're you guys yelling about?" Heisuke came jogging up from behind Nagakura and stopped when he was to the left of Chizuru.

"Hey Chizuru, I see that you brought Kentaro back with you. He can be so cute when he rolls up into a ball like that." Then Heisuke looked back up at Nagakura and said "Shinpachi, I came to get you because it's our turn to make dinner."

Nagakura lifted his hands up and shrugged "I'll be there in a minute, just let me grab something."

"Let you grab something?" Heisuke prompted "What's that something that that you're grabbing?"

"Just something that I ordered a while back, specially made."

Heisuke and Sano cocked their heads at this, and then just shrugged their shoulders at the fact that Nagakura was just as hopeless as ever. Chizuru just giggled in silence. Then, they all made their way towards the kitchen.

Because Nagakura hadn't returned by the appointed time, Chizuru lent a hand with the cooking while Sano watched over Kentaro.

Right before everyone had arrived to eat, Nagakura had just arrived with an entire jug of sake decorated with a red ribbon.

"N-Nagakura, what's that supposed to be? Was that the item that you said was specially made for you?" Chizuru stuttered.

"Spot on Chizuru, this is some real high class sake that I've been saving my money up for!"

Sano snickered and then said "Wow, I didn't expect Shinpachi to be so responsible."

"What's that supposed to mean Sano?!"

Sano took a quick sip from his cup, and then answered "Nothing in particular."

Right before Nagakura could make a fist, Hijikata walked in the moment the argument was being sputtered. "Do you men think it's proper to argue in front of a child?"

Sano and Nagakura looked down at where Kentaro lay happily in Chizuru's arms, and then back up at Hijikata "Yes sir, won't happen again." They both said in unison.

Hijikata glared at them one last time before accepting their apology, and then sat down at his seat and began eating. Sannan and Koundo arrived only minutes after the mishap.

Koundo looked from face, and once he was at his limit of curiosity, he finally spoke his mind "Why is it so quiet today? Normally you guys would be complaining about Nagakura stealing food!" He crossed his arms and said again "It's just not that lively today... Oh I know, I could mention the letter that the Aizu Clan sent us!"

"Commander!" Hijikata said nervously.

"Its fine Toshi, after all, we're going to do it either way, right?"

"Yes, but—"

"Then its fine, don't be such a worry wart!"

By this time, everyone one was anxiously waiting for Koundo to continue about the letter that the Aizu had sent.

"The Aizu Clan wants us to support them in battle."

Even Saito happened to wait for the next words of Koundo.

"They sent me a letter saying to head Kujukawara, and wait with the army there for battle.

Heisuke jumped up and added a question "Is it a formal letter?"

"In fact it is Heisuke." Everyone's spirit seemed to jump a bit higher that night, and seemed to lift a few more centimeters off the ground, the further he explained. But that night, something had also caught Chizuru on a hook.

After dinner, Chizuru approached Captain Koundo and asked "Uhm, Commander, I was just wondering, I found a really good orphanage nearby, one that we can visit every now and then. And the only reason I mentioned this is because," she paused a moment to take a breath "I don't want Kentaro to grow up around death. And if he's with an orphanage, then it may be easier to help find him a family too, a good one."Chizuru continued to stare at the floor as if it had enraptured her very thoughts.

Then without warning, Koundo placed a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eye "Chizuru, I want you to do what you think is best for him. And I do agree with you if that's what you want, this isn't exactly the ideal environment for a child to grow up in."

Chizuru stared back at Koundo who had his usual goofy smile he used to talk to friends, discipline them, lecture them, and even though all of that has a possible reason to happen, he never let his smile get too shallow. And Chizuru still wonders how he does it.

The next day, Chizuru went out with Okita to deliver Kentaro into safe care. The entire time Chizuru looked a bit down so Okita finally worked up the courage and asked "You seem a bit down Chizuru, anything the matter?"

Chizuru without looking at him smiled and began telling Okita the story "It's just that he reminds me of who I am now, an orphan. He lost his mom, just like I've lost my father." She giggled slightly "Although we don't know for sure if mine is dead or not. In that sense, I feel sort of lucky compared to him."

Okita thought a moment and then pointed out "Well he can be compared to an extent to you, and then I'm sure he'll find a good family, just like you've already found yours Chizuru."

Chizuru smiled and this time looked up at Okita who had his head proudly raised, staring up into the sky. "I guess you're right." Chizuru said.

When they arrived at the orphanage, Chizuru got invited to step into the area that Kentaro would be staying in from now on. And as a professional guard, Okita also stepped in. The mistress of the house stepped out from behind a wall, dressed in colorful garments of silk. Chizuru blushed a bit to think that there was such a beautiful woman here.

"Oh," the woman spoke "Are you here to look with your husband?" she asked.

"N-No," Chizuru sputtered "He's not my husband!" Okita giggled a bit at Chizuru's hot red face. "We came to do quite the opposite." She held out the young boy who was curled up in her arms.

"Oh, this one?" she placed her hand over his face and swept her fingers over his bangs. "Is this child biological to you?" she pondered.

"No, he isn't, we found him with his mother, but she….."

Chizuru looked away from the mistress and let out a sigh before setting her gaze on Kentaro.

As the mistress saw what she was talking about, she said "Does he have a name?"

Chizuru's cheeks seemed to warm up with a gentle healing softness in her eyes "Kentaro."

"Such a beautiful name." she commented.

The woman then started slowly making her way through the hallway while beckoning Chizuru and Okita to her side. "Do you people have any experience in raising children?"

"No, we don't," Okita answered before Chizuru could "We have a very rough way of life where we are, and we can't raise a child in those conditions."

"I see." The woman took a small split second to glance up at Okita.

"And we also have a curfew for something we have to do, so may we hurry it up a bit?"

"Yes, I am very sorry."

The woman walked into an open grassy field with walls on every side. In the field, were children between the ages of 4 and 10 playing with a small ball you would see normal kids playing with regularly.

"This is where the children go to play outside. The little ones are still inside taking their afternoon nap. In fact, that's where Kentaro will be staying."

"That's good to know that he'll be in such a child-friendly place."

After having a small idle chat, Okita reminded the woman that they have a tight schedule, with one last look at Kentaro enclosed in the mistress' arms, Chizuru and Okita took their leave.

On their way back, Chizuru felt a little lighter in happiness remembering what Okita had mentioned earlier. "Thanks again, Okita, for telling me that."

He patted her head and then said "It's the truth; you don't need to thank me."

When they arrived at headquarters, everyone had already gathered in a small assembly at the front. Chizuru walked in and sat close to where Okita was appointed. It also seemed that Koundo had finished explaining and all of a sudden asked Chizuru "Chizuru, would you care to accompany us?"

Heisuke pushed himself up with his hand and shouted "Chizuru can't possibly do that! It's too dangerous!"

Hijikata then said "We didn't say that she was going to be on the battlefield, we were just wondering if she could help the injured and deliver messages."

Everyone was staring at her, awaiting her answer. She knew what they were talking about; it was about the letter from the Aizu last night. They had invited the Shinsengumi into battle with them; even she seemed to find it a little fishy. She narrowed her brows and thought deep and hard. She wants to support everyone, no matter what situation it was. And as she tried to think of anything against it, she finally said "I'll go along if you think that I'll be of any help."

Everyone smiled with glee and applauded happily. Heisuke raised his arm and slapped his hand down hard on it "Make sure to work hard for those of us who aren't there, Chizuru!"

"Yes sir!"

"Please take this seriously Yukimura," Sannan had sky-rocketed the mood "this is no time to be playing around."

Chizuru looked startled before she dropped her head down in shame and said "Yes sir…"

At Captain Koundo's orders, the men prepared themselves to head out. Chizuru rushed from room to room to call out the soldiers when they were ready. She told them where they were meeting at and then hurried onto the next room.

Soon, after all the running, Chizuru retired herself to the main gates to head out. But it seemed that Hijikata had beaten her there. "Oh, Captain Hijikata, I didn't see you there."

"If it isn't Chizuru," his face was blank, as usual "are you already done with your task?"

"Yes sir."

"Good."

They stood there together for a few awkward moments and then when Chizuru finally decided to break the silence, Hijikata decided to also beat her to that as well.

"I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Chizuru looked puzzled for a moment "Sorry for what?"

"About Kentaro, I'm sorry that we couldn't keep Kentaro."

As Hijikata looked away in embarrassment, Chizuru leaned over a bit to see the slightest clue on his face. Then, she leaned back to her usual position and giggled at the fact that Hijikata spoke as if Kentaro was a dog. Hijikata jumped about 2 millimeters before turning to her again.

"You don't need to apologize to me Captain Hijikata; after all, it was my choice. Plus, even if I could keep him as family, I already have a whole other one here, and I would have to abandon this one to make that happen." With this, she looked up into his bedazzled violet eyes.

Before Hijikata could complete a full smile, the geared of troops were being led towards them by Commander Koundo and the rest of the Captains.

Hijikata and Chizuru stood up straight and bowed down upon seeing them. "Toshi, here already?" he turned his eyes towards Chizuru then continued "You too Chizuru?" He sighed and said "Well I guess for the two of you, the early bird catches the worm."

"I just do what is required of my job." Hijikata responded.

After a few more seconds of idle chatter amongst the Captains, they all set off to the location they were to be. But the first location, the Aizu denied their statement and turned them away, and then when they went to a second Aizu base, which allowed them to enter, they told them to go somewhere else, to go to Kujukawara. And as they were told, with a bow for respect, they set out and headed there. But yet again, it seemed that they were at a dead end.

"We've received no such orders to allow the Shinsengumi through here."

Nagakura rose from where he stood, walked up and spout "Your damn leader was the one-"

Before he could continue speaking, Koundo placed an arm over in front of him and said "We have received a formal letter for us to assist in battle. May we have an audience with your Captain here?"

The Aizu representative paused for a long moment and thought, then spoke "No, he's busy right now, wait until tomorrow."

The fact that it sounded like he was giving an order even chewed at Chizuru a bit. But then Koundo walked away over to where the plants grew in the gravel and plopped down. "You heard him men, we'll wait for tomorrow."

"Captain Koundo!" Hijikata shouted.

"That is enough Toshi." When Hijikata saw that Koundo was serious, he quieted down.

Even some of the men muttered their complaints, but then seeing as it was useless, they piped down as well.

Captain Koundo continued "We'll set camp here for tonight, prepare to rest."

The Captains sat in a circle with Koundo, discussing with him the future plans for tomorrow. With no tea to prepare, Chizuru decided to also make a little room for her in the tight circle. But as she listened to them, she became a little drowsy, and hadn't even noticed that they'd stopped talking.

She was then pushed away from her drowsiness by the sound of Sano's voice "Chizuru, if you're tired, then I can lend you my lap." He winked at her blushing face while patting his lap.

"N-No, I'm just fine!" She sat straight up and focused to prove her point.

The Captains seemed to find humor in this and chuckled. "Anyways, I'm just saying don't push yourself too hard, okay?"

Chizuru sighed and then complied "Okay…"

After a few hours of staying awake, Chizuru's symptoms of drowsiness had returned. Chizuru fought against it, even though the others had fallen asleep already, she fought hard to stay awake. But finally before the sleep had taken her, there was a giant explosion in the distance. Everyone jumped to their feet and searched their surroundings for any sign of an enemy. But the only thing their eyes met up with was the smoke that acted as a waypoint for where the screams and cries for help were. Hijikata quickly shouted orders to the others "Men, prepare to leave immediately!"

The troops did as they were told and started to head out. Then the Aizu representative from their arrival marched forth "We have not yet received orders to head out into battle!"

Hijikata quickly fired back at him in a fiery tone of voice "If you even have an ounce of pride as a warrior, then you'll throw away your damn orders and haul ass to battle!"

Chizuru had never seen Hijikata that mad before, and it even shook her a little. Not as bad as it had shook the Aizu soldier though. But seeing as he was defeated with words, he ordered the Aizu to follow after the Shinsengumi.

And with the help of the Shinsengumi's bold actions, Chizuru got to witness yet again another victory for them. When they returned to camp, Chizuru quickly tended to the injured soldiers and wiped their freshly driven wounds clean. But something that Hijikata had not planned on yet had happened.

"Damn it!" he yelled in frustration.

"W-What is it Hijikata?"

"Some of the Choushuu's soldiers escaped from battle to Tenmant Hill and away from Kyoto towards the border." He threw yet another frustrated fist into the ground "Those cowards!"

Saito strolled up and said "Shall we split up and go after separate locations?"

"Yes, Saito I want you to take with you Koundo and Sano, then I'll head out toward Tenmant Hill with Nagakura."

"I-I'll assist Hijikata!" Chizuru said unconsciously. They both looked up at her and gave her a serious look. "Don't wander far from me." Hijikata commanded.

"Yes sir." Chizuru nodded and pasted another serious look onto her face.

Without another word, they divided up the squads and headed out immediately. As it was made earlier, Chizuru made sure not wonder at all far from Hijikata's side. They had only run a quarter mile before they reached a bridge with light wood to walk across, and triangular velvet patterns for supports that pushed themselves down into the water.

But what surprised her more was the man who stood at its middle. Hijikata stopped only a few feet away from him, resting his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"I believe we've met before." Hijikata smirked; he lifted his sword out of his sheath and held it in a battle position in front of him.

Kazama only laughed and said "Humans really are fools, going after the very men who went up into the mountain to cut open their stomachs. A truly honorable way for a warrior to die, and yet you men intend to stop them."

"They are not warriors in this country; they are nothing but a criminal whose only honorable death is to have their head's cut off."

Since Chizuru was tending to an injured man in the back, she could only rely on her ears to know the converse between Kazama and Hijikata. Hijikata ordered Nagakura "Nagakura, take command over the men and head up the mountain, I'll deal with this nuisance."

"But Hijikata—"

"Go, I order this as vice commander of the Shinsengumi!"

Nagakura first looked upset and then smiled and said "Aye aye boss," he turned to Chizuru and shouted "Chizuru stay here and keep tending to that man, everyone else, follow me to battle!" They all ran past Kazama towards the hill, and surprisingly, he didn't try to stop them. He was acting as if it wasn't his business.

"Humph, if you're comfortable having it that way, then I won't stop you." Then, at lightning speed, he took his hand and yanked out his own Katana and charged at Hijikata. Hijikata was pushed back a bunch but stopped only a few feet away from Chizuru. The swords remained dynamic, changing and switching positions rapidly; Chizuru's own eyes couldn't keep up with the action. Then finally, the swords stopped to a static position, in which they were crossed like an x. Finally, Kazama moved his eyes towards Chizuru and a seducing smile reached his lips. As Hijikata saw this as a moment to strike, he quickly moved behind Kazama to throw down his sword but then Kazama also turned and held up his sword to defend, and he was only a little late. Hijikata sent his sword flying towards Chizuru and the injured soldier.

As bravely as Chizuru could, she used her body as a shield to protect the already injured soldier from further harm. Chizuru succeeded in doing so, but got her arm cut by the flying sword in the process. Chizuru sat up and looked down at the ground as she covered her bloodied arm with her hand. A feeling of guilt had drowned her face in echoes.

As this happened, Kazama had had his eyes turned from Hijikata for a time, watching what Chizuru did. His eyes narrowed, and then looked back towards Hijikata and said "I've gotten what I came here for." And with that, he retrieved his sword and exchanged a quick glance with Chizuru. Paused, then he went on towards his location.

Hijikata rushed over to Chizuru's side and said "Let me look at your arm." He held out his hand but Chizuru only whispered "I'm fine."

"No you're not, let me—"

This time louder, Chizuru repeated "I'm fine, just leave me be!"

Feeling insulted, Hijikata drew back at this expanse, and then stood up and left her alone. But it wasn't long before the injured soldier pointed out towards Kyoto and exclaimed "Look, Kyoto, it's in flames!"

Chizuru followed his finger and laid her eyes on the glorious city which was now engulfed in flames. The last thing that made Chizuru snap was the thought of Kentaro, still in the orphanage, still in the city; the city that was now a roaring sea of flames.

Chizuru got up and sprinted as fast as her legs could carry her. Even when her legs begged her to stop, she kept right on pushing, not caring at all for her own safety. When she finally reached the entrance to the city, she ran towards where she had first found the orphanage. The roof had collapsed and before the entrance did as well, Chizuru shoved her body into full motion and fell forward onto the ground. She struggled to stand up, now that her legs were bruised and tired. She raised her kimono's sleeve to her mouth to take away more of the chemicals from the smoke. She walked through the hallways that the mistress had led them through, to where all the children would play.

As she went though, her thoughts almost seemed to make her crazy, and the thought of suicide had run through a few times too. When she arrived at the playground's field, not a single body lay in the smoke, then she remembered the room that the mistress had pointed out to, where Kentaro would be staying. She rushed to the room and threw the door open only to let the smoke inside escape and go into her eyes. This made her vision very blurry and she stumbled around the room, repeatedly calling out Kentaro's name.

"Kentaro…." After about every 4 times she said his name, she would let out a few hacking coughs. And then it very soon grew consistent. Then, without the warning of a few crackling, the roof collapsed and fell on top of Chizuru's back. The side of her face bruised against the floor, and then lay there, knowing that calling out for help was useless. Absolutely no one was there anyway. Her mind cleared, and then only the thought about how her life was ending remained. With each intake of breath, she could feel her conscious slipping away.

And right before she fell headfirst into the dark, she felt an arm remove the rubble from on top of her. She peered to look up at her savior, and caught the beautiful features of his face. The rubies of his eyes glowed even brighter than the crisp flames themselves, and his hair even swifter than the flames. The man's hand removed the bangs that covered her face and brushed the top her head softly with his warm hands.

The last thing that Chizuru whispered was a name.

"…Kazama….." His hands covered her eyes and helped them close by applying small pressure to her eyelids and making a downward motion with his hand.

Note: There will be another chapter! :3 (I was listening to sad music in the end and decided that u should all share my pain :3 so I created a death-like scene for Chizuru, but tune in at the next chapter for more info on this coupled .)


	4. Chapter 4 - A Day of New Perspective

Chapter 4 – A Day of New Perspective

Chizuru heard one last thing before drifting under a sleep spell amidst the flames. "You've always been this reckless." Then, all at once, Chizuru faded away into the darkness of dreams, the kind that you don't want to wake up from. But all too soon, it had ended with the warmth of a candle.

She sat up in bed, trying to recall what had happened. She remembered the roof that had collapsed on top of her, and lifted her hand to feel the side of her face. There was a bandage there. And then she remembered the reason she was there at the burning building. Her head dropped and she slowly lifted her hands to her face, to cover the drops of tears from escaping down her face.

"Kentaro, Kentaro… Kentaro… I'm so sorry." She remained like that until she heard the door slide open. She lifted her face up to see Kazama standing in the doorway. He looked down at her and met her eyes which were now a mass of lakes ready to flood at any given second.

He closed his eyes and continued to walk to the right of her, and seated himself against the light of the candle. He took his kimono's sleeve and lifted it Chizuru's face. But before he could touch her, she jumped back a bit which made him pause and put an irritated look on his face. Then, he continued to her face without her permission, but this time, she didn't fight it. He began wiping away the water from her eyes that had escaped the shrinking lakes.

Chizuru realized that he had begun to do this without saying anything, so she once he was done wiping the tears from her face, she asked "Uhm, Kazama?"

He made a face at her but then quickly closed it and said "Did you need something else?"

"N-No, I just wanted to know, well," He noticed her worried look and began to concentrate closer on her next words "Why are you helping me like this?"

He didn't quite answer but whispered something that Chizuru couldn't quite make out "What, Kazama?"

"It's nothing, it's for my own purposes." He paused and then looked at her again and said "About Kentaro," Chizuru found the tears beginning to swell up again "He didn't make it through the fire."

Without Chizuru noticing it, she had jumped from her futon and landed with her hands clenched against Kazama's robe. She began crying again and only wished for someone to hold her for a few minutes. Kazama immediately took notice of her plea and wrapped his hands around her while pulling her closer to his chest. By this point she just hid her face inside his robe and held tight onto him to make sure that there was no way he could escape at that moment. Then, she remembered the little boy that had saved her from the men in the alleyway. He also had the same features as Kazama. The same eyes, hair, and heart, for the boy had also caressed her this way when she was scared and afraid. He had promised to protect her from those kinds of people. But soon after, he had just up and disappeared. She always waited for him to come back, but gave up after two months worth of waiting.

And now he finally appeared back in front of her. She held onto him tighter and then shifted into a more comfy position before trying to calm down a bit and rest. "You've changed a lot, Chikage."

Kazama's face had grown surprised at this, though barely knowing anything about him, she said his first name. And that she had said that he had changed a lot. Kazama wouldn't have thought that she would've remembered something from so long ago. Kazama knew that childhood friends didn't matter as a demon. But she had grown up around humans so it's bound to be like that for her. And despite what she has done, he decided to take advantage of that. Using her feelings for back then, he could lure her into wanting to stay with him. Another wicked smile formed on his lips.

Later, when Chizuru woke up, she was still embraced in Kazama's arms, which made her jump up from her comfy position while blushing brightly. "I-I-I'm so sorry for pushing me onto you!" she stuttered.

He looked up at her and put a blank expression on, which reminded her a little of Hijikata "It's fine. Anyway, you should be getting up for breakfast."

"Where would we eat breakfast, Kazama?"

"Where else, we would eat it here in the mansion." Kazama had no intention of letting her outside where the Shinsengumi would be patrolling. He knew that they were most likely asking around as to where she went.

Kazama stood up and called to Chizuru to follow after him. And obedient as she is, she stood up and headed after him. While walking through the hallways of the mansion, several questions had popped into head, and started with "Uhm, Kazama, where are we?"

"A mansion that the Satsuma claimed, they keep their troops here for backup."

Chizuru looked at the ground while keeping a single eye on Kazama "I see… Then why did you bring me here?"

"I didn't have any other place to bring you too while you were unconscious."

Chizuru found it awfully strange with how straightforward his questions were. He was answering all her questions without a second thought.

"Okay then—" Kazama interrupted her as if he already knew what she was thinking.

"I don't plan on letting you outside these walls unless it's inevitable."

"But, that's not right!" Chizuru shouted without noticing and attracted more attention from Kazama than needed. He turned to her and lifted up her chin with his left hand to lift her face a bit closer to his face "I don't recall saying that you could shout nonsense whenever you feel the need."

Chizuru was released from Kazama's hand and looked away from his gaze to think about why he would become so angry at her for wanting to go home. She was sure that the Shinsengumi was worried and looking for her right now. Without her noticing it, Kazama had already gotten ahead of her, so she rushed to catch up.

'Just what is he thinking?'

Soon, they arrived to a room that was completely empty besides the food that lay on a tray at the center. Kazama walked and seated himself, and then beckoned Chizuru to sit across from him. Afraid he would get angry again, she sat down across from him as she was told. He began eating his food, but Chizuru remained in a static position, taking in her surroundings, and taking the time she needed to know how long she may be here. And it also bothered her that it was only them in the room. She was used to breakfast being so busy, with Nagakura stealing Heisuke's food, and Hijikata scolding them both constantly.

She giggled a bit at the thought of the both of them. Kazama noticed this and asked "Aren't you going to eat. Even for a demon, eating is essential for keeping your body healthy."

Kazama lifted her chopsticks and took a vegetable from her plate. What he did next surprised Chizuru. He lifted it to her mouth, and Chizuru noticed then that he has a side that'll worry for other people too. She opened her mouth and accepted the food that he just gave her.

"I can't keep hand feeding you, so you need to start eating."

"O-Okay." Chizuru slightly smiled to herself at the thought of Kazama worrying about her.

"And after we eat," he chewed up his last piece of meat and then pointed his chopsticks at her "You need to get dressed in something else. I let you sleep in that last night, but it's gotten even dirtier with the dirt from the smoke."

Chizuru looked down at her clothes and noticed how much dirtier they've gotten since the fire. She felt a little embarrassed that she had to be seen like that. So as recoil, she quickly got up and said "I would like to get dressed now please! These clothes are a bit embarrassing to see the least…."

Kazama stood up a long with her and then took her hand in his and started out the door and down the hallway again. Then, when Chizuru looked down at their hands together, a light and fluffy feeling came over her, like she was enchanted with the wings of happiness. Like her own soft little cloud. But it ended when she accidently ran into Kazama who had stopped in front of a door with small patterns on it.

He looked back at Chizuru and said "There's a woman in there that'll help you get dressed."

"Wait, but I don't need any help to get dressed."

"Just go." With this, he opened the door and pushed her inside where her face almost met the floor.

"Owww….." When she looked up, she met eye to eye with a beautiful maiden with bright blue make up.

The woman helped her up and then asked "Are you the maiden that Kazama has brought back?"

"I guess that would be me…" Chizuru sat up straight and started brushing herself off.

"Then allow me." The scooted over to an area in the room where a small box lay. She lifted the lid and out came a kimono the color of a fading sunset. Chizuru's eyes glittered with excitement as the maiden pulled out the rest of the garments to match the kimono.

Then, holding the clothes in her arms, she turned back towards Chizuru and said "If I may, Yukimura?" the woman scooted closer with every syllable to her with Chizuru wearing a frightened expression.

"Wait, you mean that that's for me?" Chizuru backed up against the door, and as the door was her only escape, she quickly made a leap towards it. But only a moment too late, with an evil flash in her eyes, the maiden grabbed Chizuru's wrist and pulled her towards the kimono. With one last glance at the door, Chizuru was pulled towards the ground where she was forced into the kimono and makeup.

Whenever anyone passed the room, all they could hear were the screams and pleas of Chizuru and the never ending banging around.

Finally, the banging came to a stop and Kazama turned his gaze to the door. It slowly opened, leaving Chizuru to be shoved back outside as she had been in. But this time, before she fell down to the floor, Kazama threw his arm down and caught her by the waist. He helped her maintain her balance again, and then he let go. Chizuru looked up at him, never thinking once after all of those meetings back in Kyoto, that he could have this sort of side to him.

He started down the hall again, and Chizuru grew a little annoyed that he made her dress up in this but still didn't receive a comment. She really seemed to grow accustomed to it though. After all, she has been forced to wear men's clothes because of the Shinsengumi. She felt a little at ease knowing that she could finally wear women's clothes again.

Chizuru soon noticed that they had been walking a while, and decided to ask "Uhm, Kazama?"

Without looking at her, he responded "What do you need?"

She grunted a bit at the lousy response and then asked "Where are we headed to now?"

"The garden, unless you don't want to go." This time he looked back at her with his ruby-red eyes.

She almost went completely speechless at the sight of him until she noticed "No, its okay, I'll go."

She continued following him, still trying to unravel the mysteries of his true personality. Before, he seemed too scary, like their first meeting, when he was still fighting against Okita.

Soon without Chizuru noticing, he stopped and Chizuru bumped into him yet again.

"Pay attention to others." He prompted.

Chizuru's face grew slightly red in fury but soon went from fury to a child's face when they receive a present.

In front of Kazama were rows and rows of fruit trees and flowers. Chizuru smiled at the beauty of the plant life. In fact she went ahead of Kazama and into the ocean of beauty. She spun around several times before getting to dizzy and fell down to the ground. Kazama wasn't expecting her to do that, but his only reaction was a singular sigh. He walked over to where she lay and only looked down at her closed eyes. He seemed to like it better when she was in a neutral position. Especially among the cherry blossoms, all of a sudden, a grumbling noise stood over the wind.

Chizuru sat up and held her stomach while blushing madly.

Kazama looked a little upset when he said "I forgot, when we left you hadn't eaten all of your breakfast. " He walked past her and to a tree where he took his hand and swiftly picked a few blackberries. He sat next to Chizuru who jumped a bit when he did. Kazama held out his hand that he held the berries with, letting her know that he wanted her to take some.

Chizuru noticed this and took some of the berries from his grasp. She lifted 1 to her mouth and tasted it. Her cheeks grew red at how sweet it was. Not that Chizuru didn't like sweet things; she just hadn't been able to eat sweets before. So one after one, she ate the rest that was in his hand.

Then for a while, Chizuru and Kazama just sat there together. Then Chizuru thought that this was the perfect time to ask him questions.

"Uhm, Kazama," Kazama gave her a glance which told her that he was listening "I was wondering if I could ask you something."

Again, as if he knew all along he answered "You aren't going anywhere outside these walls."

This time, Chizuru was slightly annoyed as to why she can't so she stood up and shouted "Why can't I go? There's no reason to be here with you, right? So why, why can't I just go back home?"

This also set Kazama's timer off, which made him jump up and pull her down underneath him. Then Kazama leaned so close that she could feel the breath on her ear.

He whispered "I have way more reason to keep you here than with those barbarians."

Chizuru started to keep an eye open to watch what Kazama does "Then what's the reason?" she squeaked. Kazama was holding her wrists together so tight that she could barely manage to speak.

Kazama smiled another seductive smile which made her shiver even more "Are you telling me that a demon doesn't even know that she is one? Haven't you ever noticed how much faster your wounds heal than others?"

Chizuru jumped at this which just made Kazama's pride go up that much more. "Female demons such as yourself are hard to find. It would probably take me another 10 years just to find a clue." Kazama leaned in closer to her face and Chizuru turned her head away to avoid it. But just before the impact came, Kazama move her face back to where it was with his hand.

Then, before Chizuru could reject it again, Kazama met her lips with his. Chizuru was surprised at how soft they were. She thought it would be rough and sickening. But somehow, she found comfort in it. She almost completely closed her eyes when Kazama tried to go for a deeper kiss. Then she realized what had happened and what she was doing and quickly broke free from his hand. She took her hands and shoved him away and off of her, then stood up and started running towards the front of the mansion. Soon, when Chizuru's shoes almost gave out, she decided to slip them both off and left them there in the hallway. Chizuru kept running until she finally found at the front, where the main gates were. She hurried towards them and then out.

\- Kazama Chikage –

Kazama, not used to being rejected, grew a fury on his face and began to pursue Chizuru. Soon, he had been running for a few minutes and came upon the shoes she had dropped.

"Seriously, is she trying to be found out?" he said with a smirk.

He walked towards the shoes and picked them up to store inside his robe. He then started pursuing her yet again.

\- Yukimura Chizuru –

Chizuru kept on running until she was sure she was out of Kazama's line of fire. So she hid inside an alley and started to catch her breath. She took a peek out from the alley and noticed that she had run to where the markets were. It looked like they were starting to rebuild from the fire. Chizuru was about to keep heading away from the mansion until a hand appeared out from the shadows and closed over her mouth. She was pulled back and uncomfortably thrown against the wall.

Before her stood 3 men in old and dusty kimonos, she was petrified. There was no good intent in their eyes, Chizuru could tell.

"Well well, what do we have here?" the man holding her said. "A geisha running around in the morning outside the red light district, this is rare."

Chizuru noticed that she still had the makeup and kimono on from the mansion.

The man to his left then said "Hey sweety, if you're a geisha, then show us soldiers what a good time is."

Chizuru knew what they were talking about, and she very much wanted to scream out for help before the third man starting tearing at her kimono. Chizuru pushed his hands away and pulled her kimono back up.

He said a bit irritably "A bit shy now, are we?"

When she was done she used all of her force to push away the man holding her and tried to run. Unfortunately, the man that was still to the right of the pushed down man was a bit quicker than Chizuru. He grabbed her shoulder and threw her to the ground. But before she hit the ground, she fell on something light and silky. After that a chorus of dying chokes cried out and Chizuru got something warm and wet on her face. After that, there was no more noise.

She opened her eyes to look up at Kazama. She had never been happier to see him before. She slowly got up, and then at the same pace, she slowly hugged Kazama. Hot springs of tears poured down her cheeks. And the harder the crying got, the tighter she held Kazama. Eventually she felt warm hands spread across her back, and a chin resting on her forehead. Kazama lifted up her face which was now stained with blood.

"I got you dirty with their blood."

"Blood?" Chizuru looked down at herself which was now indeed covered in blood.

Kazama lifted up the arm of his robe and used it to wipe as much blood off her face as possible.

"I can't get all the blood off of you, so on the way back to the mansion; I want you to hide your face in my kimono."

Chizuru blushed a little before saying "So y-you want me to hug you all the way back?"

Kazama nodded and then for the very first time smiled a truly happy smile. Chizuru blushed an even brighter pink before lifting her hands up to his face and pressing their foreheads together.

Chizuru smiled and said "We did this as kids, didn't we?"

For the first time, Kazama let his guard down and showed an expression of awe.

"You did this to me to make sure I knew it was okay, like this inside an alley, after saving me from evil men." Chizuru's tears swelled back up again and started leaving trails of tears down her cheeks. Her face fell down into his lap and after she said "Just let me stay like this for a while, please." Now it wasn't tears of sadness rushing through her eyes, but tears of happiness. After finally meeting her childhood friend from so long ago.

-note- I will be making another chapter so stay tuned . for this chapter I finally wanted some action with Chizuru and Kazama so here I m!


	5. Chapter 5 - Fading Resilience

Chapter 5 – Fading Resilience

Chizuru continued to remain in that position until Kazama lifted her up and held her in an embarrassing way. She was held so her face would purposefully be near his chest where she could hide it. His hands seemed large compared to Chizuru, so it felt a bit strange to be held by them. It was as if he was only cupping her shoulders instead of holding her so that she wouldn't slip away. No, this was an even more protective position. Chizuru blushed a bit at the thought.

When he started moving he said "Hurry up and hide your face."

Once Chizuru heard him, she did as she was told. She was thankful for this though, because she blushed even harder at his scent so she was happy to be able to hide it. But once they reached the center of the market, Chizuru could feel the hot and intense stares of everyone. She should've expected it though. Not very many people get to see a man walk around with a woman in their arms. When Chizuru thought about it, she realized that Kazama was actually kind of handsome.

But when she tried to sneak a look, he said "Don't show your face, keep it hidden."

Since Chizuru didn't expect him to notice, she jumped a bit when he said it. But again, she did as she was told and hid her face. The thoughts and feelings going through her head made the walk seem longer and more tiring. Soon, she could feel her eyelids droop lower than they usually do. She closed her eyes thinking that she may be able to fall asleep before they got there. And sleeping to her right now was like a present. Something she could make use of. So she took the opportunity, and just like that, she fell into the world of dreams in Kazama's arms.

Chizuru dreamed a wonderful dream. She dreamt she was at home again with her father. But in her dream, her father had aged quite a bit. And the house wasn't the same, it was larger than theirs. And the inside was littered with different decorations from red and white to large paintings hanging on the walls. She was walking through the kitchen when the door opened and two small children came running through. One had light brown hair and appeared to have a lot of resemblance to Chizuru. The other one had red eyes with dirty blonde hair. The children tugged at her kimono and continued to shout 'mother.' Then her father walked in and attracted the attention of the young ones. What they called him was 'grandfather.' She turned to them and smiled at their happy faces. While she did that, arms came out from behind her and embraced her in a tight, yet soft hug. Out of the corner of her eyes was silky blonde hair and eyes with a red glint.

"Kazama?" Chizuru whispered.

He was smiling at her, a warm smile full of many bright lights. But unfortunately, when he opened his mouth to say something, the dream ended.

Chizuru lay awake staring at her room's ceiling. She knew she wasn't in the same room as she was at the mansion. The wall patterns were different, and so was the floor. After thinking a moment about the dream and the man in it, she sat up and surveyed her surroundings. It was a normal enough room with a wooden floor and white walls.

'Was it all just a dream?' she wondered. She then thought of the warmth that she felt when she was enclosed in Kazama's arms. She knew that it couldn't have been a dream. She felt that she could still feel the hot and intense stares of the people at the market.

She crawled over to the door and slid it open slowly, to make sure that if anyone was still around, that they wouldn't notice her. But to her surprise, the only thing she found was the plant life surrounding the Shinsengumi Headquarters. She felt at ease knowing she was safe and peered up at the sky. It seemed to be around the afternoon. At this time, she knew that the Shinsengumi would be in down the hallway eating lunch. Chizuru shut her door just as swiftly as it was opened and started to get dressed. She noticed that she was still wearing the beautiful kimono the woman had given her, so she took it off and put it in a basket in the corner of the room. She took her normal everyday clothes and slipped them on.

As soon as she was done tying her sash, she left her room and started down the hallway, towards where everyone would normally sit down to eat. But as she continued on, she noticed that many people were staring at her.

She touched her face and thought 'Do I have something on my face?'

She dismissed the thought after a while and continued on her way down the hallway. When she finally reached the door, in the Japanese fashion, she sat down first and said "I'm coming in now." She reached for the door and slid it open. And when she opened her eyes, it seemed that she opened them at the wrong time. Everyone in the room was slack jawed and staring at her with surprised expressions. Most of them dropped their food, and even Saito stopped eating to look at her.

"I-Is something wrong?" Chizuru stuttered. Now she was really wondering whether there was something on her face or not, when all at the same time, they all yelled her name.

Chizuru held her hands to her ears to block out most of the noise. Then when she was sure again that they were done, she opened her eyes and freed her ears.

The first one to speak was Heisuke "Is that really you Chizuru?!" he clarified.

"Y-Yes," Chizuru looked a bit higher up "But what's the matter?"

"What's the matter?" Sano mimicked.

Nagakura then jumped in "Chizuru, we thought you disappeared!"

Before she could respond, Hijikata stood from where he sat and said "You are going to sit with us and explain, got it?"

Chizuru looked up into his violet eyes and nodded "Yes sir."

After the awkward moment with Hijikata, she seated herself next to Sano, just like always.

"Begin." Hijikata ordered.

Chizuru took one sip of her tea and started with the story "After I ran away from you at the bridge, I ran into the city."

Hijikata looked up at this and asked "Why?"

Chizuru tightened the grip on her pants and continued "Kentaro….. Kentaro was still in the orphanage…" Chizuru's eyes seemed to pierce the floor beneath her.

Hijikata almost told her to continue, but decided to give her a moment to recuperate.

"And then when I ran into the orphanage to where Kentaro was, the roof caved in, it fell on top of me."

"Then who saved you?" Chizuru could tell that Hijikata knew something was missing to the story, and she chose to add to it.

"I lay there for a while surrounded by the flames, until someone came to me and saved me."

"Did you know the person?"

Chizuru jumped and looked up at Hijikata with concerned eyes. She was hoping that he wouldn't see through the white lie "N-No, I didn't. I blacked out before I could look at his face…"

Hijikata sat back again and voiced "I see."

"After that I woke up in my room." Chizuru knew that she cut a big part out of her story, so it made the story she told look too obvious.

But as Chizuru expected, Hijikata said suspiciously "Is that everything to your story?"

Chizuru jumped again at that phrase and tried hard not to stutter with her next sentence "Yes."

Chizuru looked down and closed her eyes afraid to see the outcome. But what had happened next, Chizuru was not expecting.

Hijikata sighed and then said again "I guess there's no helping that then." He looked up and said "Chizuru," Chizuru looked up "If you intend to go on the next patrol with Souji and Saito then you better hurry up and eat so you can get ready."

Chizuru nodded her head in confusion. She knew that Hijikata wasn't that shallow. She was betting anything that he knew that something was missing to her story. But she finished her food quickly to take it off her mind, and then hurried back down the hallway to grab her short sword for patrol.

As usual, she met Okita and Saito at the main gates, and as always, they were waiting for her to be done getting ready.

Chizuru strode up to them and apologized "I'm terribly sorry for being late for patrol." She bowed deeply.

Okita winked and joked "Yeah, you have to hurry next time Chizuru, or else we might just choose to leave you behind."

Chizuru put on a happy expression and giggled "Yes sir."

Saito stood straight from where he was leaning and said "Okay, let's head out." Saito was already walking away when he finished the sentence.

All the men obeyed the orders and started to follow after Okita and Saito. Chizuru caught up to the guys up front after they exited the gates. When they arrived to their first checkpoint, Saito claimed "Today I'll take the left."

"Okay, whatever boss." Okita said sarcastically.

"I think I'll go with Saito today." Chizuru chimed in.

Okita nodded before walking off with his group.

Saito looked at Chizuru and said "Let's get going now."

Chizuru grinned and said "Okay."

As he said earlier, Saito and Chizuru took the left path through Kyoto. It kind of made Chizuru sad to look at all the citizens working to rebuild the buildings that were caught on fire, then again, Chizuru couldn't help them even if she wanted too. She had nothing to offer, no spare money, no wooden planks, and no experience in building either. Then after walking for a while, as Chizuru was scanning the many people rebuilding the city, she saw 3 men yelling at a woman and a small child. Without thinking, she headlong rushed towards them. After she took off towards them, Saito sighed tiredly.

Chizuru ran in between the men and the woman with the child to intervene the fight. From what Chizuru could hear before, the men were arguing about respect from the woman just because they were 'soldiers.'

So right off the bat, she said "Soldiers are supposed to protect the citizens from harm! Not go bossing them around about respect!" Chizuru noticed that she had made them a little bit madder than what she was intending too.

The man in front shouted "What's that suppose to mean you little brat!" He lifted his sword up to strike, but before he could bring it down on her, Chizuru closed her eyes to leave her ears visible to the sound of people hitting the ground. She opened her eyes and before her stood Saito, just sheathing her sword while the men lay motionless on the ground.

Saito seemed to notice how concerned she was and said "Don't worry, I use the blunt side of my blade." He opened his eyes again and said "You shouldn't rush headlong into battle and not be able to defend yourself."

When Chizuru put a hand on the back of her head in guilt, the woman that was protecting the child stepped forth and said "That's right; I could've totally handled those men by myself."

Chizuru let her hand fall down to her side while she turned towards the woman. The woman came up to her and cupped Chizuru's hands in hers "But I do commend you for your bravery against those men. You were absolutely amazing!" She opened her eyes and said "What's your name?"

My name's Chizuru." Chizuru introduced herself.

"I see, Chizuru, well my name's Sen. Feel free just to call me that." Sen leaned slightly closer to her and said "So what do you say Chizuru, do you wanna be friends?"

"Uhm…" Chizuru held back a little before Sen beat her to words.

"It isn't unusual for too females to be friends, is it?"

"Wha—" Once again, Sen beat her to her own words.

"Oops," Sen strapped on an apologetic expression "Was no one supposed to know that?"

Chizuru looked away and nodded when Sen said "My apologies!" She let go of Chizuru's hands and cupped her own together in apology.

"It's fine…" Chizuru said, almost speechless.

"So what do you say we meet up later for some dumplings, Chizuru?"

"Oh, sure, if you don't mind…" Chizuru was excited at the thought of her first female friend in ages.

After Chizuru said her goodbyes with Sen, she continued back to where Saito stood waiting, with the troop.

"Sorry for the holdup." Chizuru said apologetically yet again.

Saito accepted her apology, and then continued again on their patrol. Chizuru kept on following him, and asked along the way for whereabouts of her father. Sadly though, nothing came up. When she returned with Saito, everything seemed to have a different atmosphere. She was so distracted by it that she hadn't even noticed that Saito and the troop got ahead of her. But it was too late by the time she actually noticed it, she was lost inside the rolling waves of the citizens. It had become extra busy by the time they began to rebuild. Chizuru tried to get away from the crowded areas and find isolated ones to see if she could spot Saito from there. Unfortunately, she couldn't spot him. By then, she thought that she should just head back to headquarters and wait for him to get back. But right before she started on her way back, she spotted someone in the crowd.

The person seemed to be a man, a bit taller than Saito. From what she could see, he had blonde hair and a black outer robe on. She knew instantly that there was only one man that matched these features perfectly. She followed after Kazama, making sure that she remained only a low shadow in the crowd of swarming people. But the more she went on, the more she noticed the crowds get thinner. And she only noticed how long she had been following him when she stopped to look up at the sky. The sun was almost ready to begin setting. But Chizuru decided to not accept defeat and continued to follow him. Soon, almost no one was around and she had to hide behind things just to keep out of sight.

Before he rounded the next corner, Chizuru could've sworn that she saw him smirk. Very carefully she crawled over to where she saw him turn, and looked out to where he went too. The very first thing she noticed the beautiful Cherry Blossom tree in the view of the sunset. A bridge was right next to it. Only when she noticed what kind of wood it was did she know where this place was. This was the first place that Chizuru first encountered Kazama alone. When she was still with Kentaro. Chizuru's hand clenched the wall's corner tighter at the thought.

Then Chizuru suddenly thought 'Wait, where did Kazama go?'

She looked around frantically, but couldn't figure out where he was. He wasn't directly around the corner and he wasn't anywhere on or near the bridge. She stood up and almost went forward before someone leaned in on her from behind and whispered into her ear

"Boo."

Even though it was meant to sound sarcastic, it sent Chizuru flying forward. She hadn't expected a sudden voice to come from behind. When her shock was done processing, she spun around wildly and firmly placed her hand on the hilt of her blade, ready to let it out for attack. But before she wanted to draw it, she registered the figure of Kazama standing, smirking in place in front of her.

"Kazama….?"

Kazama slightly laughed at her surprised face "I noticed someone following me around town. If I knew it was you, I would've led you too an isolated place earlier.

"Isolated?" Chizuru looked around her before realizing that there was in fact no one else around but them.

Chizuru looked even more unstable than before when she first realized that Kazama noticed her.

Kazama saw this and reassured her "Don't worry so much, I'm not here to take you away with me today, I was only here on an errand for a friend named Amagiri."

"Amagiri, I thought you said you disliked humans." Chizuru speculated.

Kazama grunted in irritation and said "That's the point, Amagiri isn't human, he's one of us."

"Oh… I'm sorry." Chizuru apologized, AGAIN.

Kazama backed off a bit and headed to a spot next to bridge in front of the stream. Almost instinctively, Chizuru followed after him. He sat down in the shade of cherry tree, and leaned back against its stump.

"Aren't you suppose to get back if you were only on an errand?" Chizuru clarified.

"Not necessarily, I can take breaks like this every once in a while."

Chizuru could sense a little bit of smugness behind his words which even picked at her a bit.

"And what about you, aren't you supposed to be heading back to the Shinsengumi's headquarters?"

Chizuru seated herself next to him and only said "I can take breaks every once in a while too."

Kazama glanced over at her and noticed that she wasn't the obedient little girl she always was. He only smiled.

After sitting in silence for a bit Kazama decided to break it by saying "Don't get me wrong."

Chizuru looked up at him in wonder "Huh?"

"I'll come again and take you, I won't need your permission. I'll only use the Shinsengumi as your bodyguards. They'll protect you until then, even if I don't request it."

Chizuru buried her face into her lap and said "Are female demons really that rare?"

Kazama only answered her question with "I would give you a detailed answer, but it looks like our time is about to be cut short."

Chizuru looked up to where Kazama gazed, and found Saito, sword drawn, ready for any impact. Kazama got up and only said "Don't worry, I didn't do anything." Then before he disappeared he whispered in the wind "yet…"

Chizuru could still feel the warmth emanating from where he previously sat.

Saito sheathed his sword and said to Chizuru "We're leaving, hurry up."

Chizuru did as she was told, noticing that Saito's words had been rougher than how they normally were.


	6. Chapter 6 - Disguised Feelings

\- Disguised Feelings –

When Chizuru arrived back at headquarters with Saito, it felt unsettling to be around everyone. She could even tell that Saito was slightly annoyed at the thought of her being with a man they had fought with before.

'Hopefully they won't take it the wrong way!' She hoped.

Her prayers were answered when Hijikata requested an audience with her. But unfortunately, he only requested for her to come. Not Koundo, or Sannan, just her. She excused herself at the door and let her into his study. She sat down across from him, an unwelcoming feeling creeping over his aura.

Hijikata was the first to speak "I heard from Saito that you were caught with Kazama Chikage. Is that true?"

"Yes…" she answered hoarsely.

"What exactly were you doing with him?"

"I was….. well," Hijikata gave Chizuru time to sort things out in her head.

"Does this have to do with the story you told earlier today?" Chizuru should've expected it. She said to herself earlier that he wasn't shallow too. He was smart enough to figure out the rest of her story without her help.

"Yes," She continued "Actually, Kazama was the one who saved me. He brought me to the Satsuma's mansion and let me rest. He even fed me…." She blushed at the thought.

She looked up into Hijikata's face and pointed out "But you have no reason to fight him anymore, right? He's allied with the Satsuma who are our allies, right?" Chizuru's voice grew weaker with every word.

Hijikata looked down and stated "Correct."

Chizuru almost went to a full blown smile before Hijikata quickly added "But that also depends on his actions in the near future."

Halfway to her smile, Chizuru died back down and said "I know."

Hijikata closed his eyes and then continued "You've been with us about a year, I wouldn't expect you to betray us as late as that. In fact if you do plan to betray us, the men who you're working for may have already cut the rope with you… So I'll let this pass."

Chizuru looked up at him in hope but knew there was some catch.

"I will not let any more members besides Saito know of this incident, but I will tell every one of them to keep an extra eye on you."

"Yes sir."

"Now then, I want you to go back to your room and sleep. And if you're anywhere but there when I go to check on you, then I'll kill you myself."

Chizuru could detect the anger in his voice, and when she looked into his violet eyes, the saw a whirling storm of pain. But even though Chizuru was afraid, she went back to her room as ordered. When she got there and lay down, she realized that a lot of things have changed since she came into the Shinsengumi. Everything used to be so cheerful, and now since this little incident happened with Kazama, she couldn't feel that it was her fault for everyone's tension. She couldn't bring herself to blame Kazama; even after all he's done to her. There was something about him that to her was more important to anything else. She didn't have a clue as to what it was, but she wanted to find out. Even if the Shinsengumi didn't allow it, even if she was to be kept on a tight leash the entire time. Before she fell asleep, she clenched her hand over her chest to sustain the loud thumping it made whenever she thought of him.

The next morning, Chizuru was woken up by the loud chirping of birds and a distant shadow standing over the door. She got up and asked "Who is it?"

"Yamazaki," the voice answered "I was ordered by Hijikata to escort you."

"Oh…" Chizuru should've expected this from Hijikata, he seemed very on edge as of late. "I'll be out in a second." She said to Yamazaki.

When she was done getting ready, she opened the door to Yamazaki's figure standing guard next to the door. "I was thinking about starting the breakfast."

"You don't need too, it's already been made by Okita and Saito, and Hijikata and Koundo are in a meeting right now with Heisuke."

Chizuru lifted her finger up and pointed out "Then I can bring them some tea."

"As you wish." He responded.

As of that, Chizuru headed to the kitchen and started heating the fire to prepare the tea.

"Sweet tea sounds good this morning…" She said with a smile. When she was done preparing the tea, she turned to see Yamazaki still waiting for her to finish. "Oh, sorry for making you wait Yamazaki."

"You needn't apologize; it's the job I was given after all."

Chizuru smiled at him and said "Okay."

Chizuru while being escorted down the hallway by Yamazaki started heading down to where the meeting room was. When she reached it, she went down on her knees and said "I'm letting myself in." Then she started sliding the door open and placed the tea inside. Once the tea was inside, she let herself in as well.

Heisuke said "So will you let him in? He's the most prized teacher in the entire school. And if he joins, then we'll get the support of the entire school as well."

Hijikata bent his head down in thought while Koundo responded "That sounds great Heisuke, he sounds great to have in the Shinsengumi. Especially if he's willing to have the school support us."

Hijikata jumped up and said "Koundo, this isn't a particularly easy decision just letting someone in!"

"You're always so on edge Toshi, what's wrong with getting his help in things?"

After a while of competing with his smile, Hijikata eventually gave up and said "Fine, as long as he'll lend us real help."

"That's the spirit Toshi."

At this time, Chizuru was patiently sitting at the side of the conversation serving everyone their cup of morning tea. Chizuru was a bit on edge, sitting next to Hijikata is what made her that way. After the conversation the night before, she doesn't think she'll even be able to hold a decent conversation with him. So the only thing she did inside there was sit to the side, refilling the cups of tea when needed. Soon, the meeting was over, and it was decided that Heisuke would travel over to Edo the next morning. With the Shinsengumi receiving support from Itou's school, there'd be even more people wanting to be recruited. So Heisuke was headed to Edo to pick up those few.

Later when Chizuru was sweeping the dead leaves to the side of the trees outside, Heisuke came up to her and asked "Hey Chizuru, can I ask you something?" He barely noticed the presence of Yamazaki nearby, but decided not to question it.

Chizuru turned and responded "Sure."

"Since I'm headed out to Edo and all," he placed his right hand on the back of his head "I'll see if I can get some info on Doctor Koudo. So can you give me your address?"

A wide smile appeared on Chizuru's lips and she said cheerfully "Of course, just a second."

Chizuru placed the broom aside and rushed to her room to retrieve a piece of paper and brush. When she came back she was still struggling to write the address on the paper in her hand. Using her hand to keep it straight proved itself difficult to Chizuru. But when she finally accomplished she handed it to Heisuke.

"Just ask the locals where the West Doctor lives and pretty much everyone and anyone should know."

Heisuke chuckled a bit and joked "So he's quite the popular one, huh?"

Chizuru laughed with him, and then said their goodbyes. She continued with her work until Okita dropped by and said "Chizuru if you're going on patrol today then you better hurry it up."

Chizuru dropped from Okita to Yamazaki who still stood in the outdoor hallway for permission.

He nodded his head and when Chizuru turned back to face Okita she said "Yes sir."

This time Chizuru placed the broom back inside where all the supplies were and took off to her room for her short sword. It seemed to take forever before Chizuru retrieved the sword and ran all the way to the main gates. There she met up with Okita and Saito, who seemed to be a little displeased. Chizuru noticed this and stopped a few feet from him and apologized.

"I'm sorry…" she just barely bowed her head before Okita said something so suddenly it made her jump.

"What're you apologizing for, Chizuru?"

"Oh, it's nothing big…"

Okita noticed her worried face and put on a baffled expression "Hey Saito, did you scare her or something?"

"Huh?" Saito put on a halfway to annoyed looking face "Why would do something so stupid?"

"Reasons…" Okita looked at him while wearing a quite devious smirk. Chizuru only laughed because she noticed that Okita was making an effort at cheering her up. She didn't want to worry anybody.

With that, they head out with the troops and headed for the first checkpoint. This time, she went with Okita on the right path. She felt a little more at ease with him than with Saito in the current situation. He was probably still mad about the night before. Thinking about his expression from them, sent chills up along her spine.

She expected Yamazaki to still be following her around too. She may not see him, but she was sure that he was disguised as a man shopping or something. That's how smart he was.

Soon, after entering the market, she heard a familiar voice call out to her. She looked around to find the source of the voice, and found Sen standing next to a vegetable stall.

"Chizuru!" Sen was trying to wave her over.

"It's Sen," she said with relief. She ran over to her without a second thought, knowing that she was the only one who always had her guard up around her. Okita noticed her running towards Sen and followed shortly after.

"How have you been, Chizuru?" Sen's smile seemed to warm Chizuru right up.

"Just fine, and you?"

"Better now that I've seen you!"

At this moment, Okita walked up from behind them and asked "Chizuru, who is this?"

"Oh, this is Sen, a friend I met when I was out with Saito."

Sen while introducing herself bowed graciously "Just call me Sen, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Okita responded with "Likewise."

Sen's face suddenly turned to a serious expression "Anyways, I came out here to tell you something Chizuru."

This even seemed to prick on Okita's interest.

Sen raised the arm of her kimono so that only they could hear "Well I heard this from a geisha that I happen to be very good friends with. She works at the Shimabara and while she was entertaining some men, she overheard them talking about planning a secret attack on the Shinsengumi."

"Is that true?" Okita questioned. He seemed intent on knowing the truth.

Sen nodded at him "Yes."

Okita lifted his hand to his chin in thought. "Hmmm, I didn't expect this." Then his head jumped up while he was in thought, then he smirked "Sen, was it? How would you like to help us with a counter plan?"  
Sen as she was not expecting this showed a confused expression before going neutral again and said cheerfully "Of course, anything to help my best friend!"

Then, Okita smirked even more deviously at Chizuru than he had at Saito back at Head Quarters. A shock ran through her, as if she knew something unbelievable was going to happen to her. And then, the next thing she knew, was that she was in the meeting room yet again, but this time discussing about the counter plan for the Choushuu.

When Okita told Hijikata and Koundo, they both were in for a surprise. They hadn't expected the Choushuu spies to think up something like that.

"This is certainly troubling." Captain Koundo said with a hand on his chin.

"We could send a spy, but we have no one who would fit into the image of the Shimabara."

While Chizuru was serving the tea, Okita said something made Chizuru almost drop all the cups "Hijikata, are forgetting someone? We dressed Chizuru as a geisha before, remember?"

While everyone had on a surprised face, he had a lame one. One that had this whole thing planned out before it happened. Heisuke almost tripped over all of his words when he spoke.

"That's too dangerous Souji! She could get hurt if she's found out!"

"Yeah, I know," his expression was still lame "But it's not like we have any other people."

"Uhm…" Chizuru was about to insert her opinion before Koundo started talking "I won't allow something so dangerous for her.

"I think I'm with Koundo," Sano agreed "It is dangerous for her."

"Actually," Hijikata finally spoke his own opinion in the matter "I think it might work. If we disguised her as a geisha, then all she would have to do is entertain the Choushuu's men and listen to their conversation." He looked up at her "In fact, I have a good bargain if you do this, Chizuru."

"Uh," Suddenly everyone's eyes were on Chizuru, but Chizuru didn't seem to like the extra attention "It's okay, I won't need any bargain, I'll do it for the sake of the Shinsengumi. It's fine, really."

"That's not the point." Chizuru's gaze jumped to rest on Hijikata "If you manage to pull this off, and manage to get the correct information, then I'll take away your supervision."

Chizuru thought about this, she didn't like having someone watching her every move, and if she's raised of suspicion, then she can do more things as she pleases.

She raised her head and then bowed it in the Japanese fashion "I'll do it, for the sake of the group. Please, allow me to do it."

When she raised her head the first one to speak was Heisuke "Are you sure about this, Chizuru. I don't think its right, and I don't want you to force yourself."

"I'm completely fine Heisuke, thank you for the concern."

Nagakura actually started encouraging Chizuru "Yeah, and even if things get hairy, Sano and I'll be going there after our patrol around town."

Heisuke responded before Chizuru could "Don't say things like that, because then she'll worry!"

While they were bickering, Sano placed a firm hand on Chizuru's head and said "It'll be fine though, after all, Saito and Yamazaki will be there for you. Right, Saito?"

Saito looked up from where he was sitting in the corner and nodded "Yes."

Sannan began to speak "If Yukimura believes she can take the job, then it's decided, so can you, Yukimura?"

Chizuru stuttered a bit while answering "Y-Yes sir."

With that, the night ended and the next morning Heisuke left for Edo while Chizuru was left to prepare for heading out to Shimabara as a geisha. She sat in her room nearly all day, she even skipped the first two chances to go out on patrol. She had to pretend that her futon was where a man at the Shimabara was sitting, asking for sake. She would practice serving sake, preparing it, and even entertaining the men. That part although was a little difficult for her. She would blush at the very thought of having to be touched by men she didn't know.

Soon, she grew tired of practice and decided to go for a walk around Head Quarters. She could see the shadow waiting outside for her, she remembered, she wasn't raised of supervision just yet. She left her room and walked around the Shinsengumi's garden for a bit, before memories of her and Kazama at the Satsuma's Head Quarters flourished all over her mind. The memory of them sitting under the fruit trees, the memory of spinning in the beautiful kimono. Then when that certain memory came to bud, she blush a bright red. She remembered when she was being held down by him, the warmth of his breath on her face. Then she also remembered, she hadn't looked at his face once when he did that.

'Did he get upset when I didn't look at him?' she suddenly found herself pondering the question, and told herself to snap out of it. But then came the most unnerving of all the memories. Of when they kissed. She held the image in her mind, overcoming every detail. Then she went through the textures. To her, Kazama's lips were almost heavenly, like a lot of gentleness that she can't see on the outside. She remembered when she almost became a victim to the softness.

She went outside to the nearest Cherry Blossom tree and sat under it. It wasn't as big as the one next to the bridge where they properly met. But it would do for the time being, she shut her eyelids and fell under a sleep spell. One that couldn't be broken easily. In it, she relived all of her memories with Kazama again, even of when they were kids. Outside her sleep, she was smiling like a small baby would when he was finally put to rest.


	7. Chapter 7 - Masked with Beauty

Chapter 7 – Masked with Beauty

As the sun drifted lower among the horizon, Chizuru continued with the preparations at the Shimabara. Thanks to her friend, Sen, she was able to infiltrate the Shimabara to get the valuable information that the Shinsengumi needed. Tonight was the night that the Choushuu spies were going to meet at the Shimabara to discuss the plans. And while undercover, it was Chizuru's job to acquire the appointed information on the attack on the Shinsengumi headquarters. Chizuru remained in the room she was given applying the bright makeup and tying on the sash to the kimono.

She peered at herself in the mirror, and remembered the kimono that Kazama had given her. She sent it back to the Satsuma through mail, and she wondered what he thought of it. Would he be upset if it got sent back, or would he not care? She honestly couldn't stand him, she hated the way she could never read what was on his mind, but he always seemed to know what was on hers. She touched her lips where the red lipstick stained her lips. She drew her finger across it, trying to remember the softness that Kazama's lips had given her. That was the only thought that had crossed her mind the entire time she waited there.

She placed both her hands in her lap and looked down at them. They had been washed beforehand so they looked beautiful and polished. Not like they had worked every day at a warrior's headquarters.

'I wonder what he's doing right now…' Chizuru asked herself.

She found herself thinking of him constantly as of late. Just like every hair on her head, she couldn't take the time to ignore him. In fact, everything she saw, she could always seem to find a way to connect him to it. Soon enough, a knock came from the door, breaking a spell she was under.

"Yes?" She answered.

"Chizuru," it was Sen's voice "The men you're going to be with tonight arrived. Are you done getting ready?"

"Y-Yes," Chizuru said getting up "I'm coming out right now."

Just as she said she would, Chizuru slowly walked towards the sliding door, hoping that she didn't put anything on wrong. She hadn't dressed up in such a long time, she'd almost forgotten. When she arrived at the door, she slid it open revealing her face bit by bit to Sen. When Sen finally got to see her entire figure; she burst out into an array of smiles.

"Wow Chizuru, you look great in that! Even I couldn't have pulled this off easily." She gave Chizuru a great big hug before setting her back down again "Anyways, Kimigiku and I'll lead you down to where those men are staying."

Chizuru only just now noticed the woman standing behind Sen; where she was just barely revealed by candlelight. Her hair was being held up by expensive looking hair clips, and a small strand fell down the side of her face to the right. The makeup around her eyes made her look like someone from out of a fairy tale. The kimono she wore was apple red and the sash that held it together was green with a blue string. It was similar to Chizuru's own, but to Chizuru, she didn't fit the kimono's theme as well as the woman in the shadows did.

"Now then Chizuru," Chizuru snapped out of her awe at Kimigiku's beauty and directed her attention back to Sen "Let's get going."

With a small nod from Chizuru, Sen took her hand and started leading her down the hallway. Since the woman behind her followed, she suggested to herself that she must be Kimigiku. The floor they walked on seemed to be newly polished because the wood was so slick, even against her sandals.

'I better be careful, I could trip on this.' She thought to herself.

While walking down the hallway, she had a question she wanted to ask Sen "Uhm, Sen?"

"Yes?"

"I was just wondering, what are the main things that a geisha has to do?" Chizuru looked a bit worried thinking that she may make a mistake while in there "I mean, I thought we had to do the dance."

Kimigiku finally spoke to answer her "Serving them sake will be enough."

Even the way she spoke to Chizuru made her sound beautiful. Chizuru looked down and nodded, not being able to close the gap between them. It seemed like forever to Chizuru before they were able to reach the door to the room of Chizuru's guests.

Sen looked at her for one last piece of advice "Some of our regular geishas are already in there. Just don't panic and try to follow along with what they do."

Chizuru nodded to Sen and said "O-Okay, I'll try my best."

With that, Sen slid open the door and gave Chizuru one last encouraging push into the room. Chizuru just almost lost her balance before she realized that all eyes in the room were on her. Then just as she had practiced, she regained her balance and gave a deep bow.

She almost tripped over her entire sentence before regaining control again "M-My name is Yukimura Chizuru, and tonight I'll be serving all of you." When she came back up to look at all the faces, she realized that they have all returned to a normal state. A state where they weren't putting her right on the spot; she didn't like that kind of attention, so with that, she got some sake and filled a jug with it.

When she turned back a man called out to her "Hey there, Chizuru was it? Come sit down over here." He was patting a spot next to him. Chizuru just barely blushed at the fact of her entertaining them.

But as he beckoned her, she didn't want to draw attention so she did what any normal geisha would do and sat beside him. He held out his cup as a notion that it needed to be refilled. She carefully picked up the white jug and tipped it the sake would only come out bit by bit and not spill everywhere.

As she sat there trying to spoil him with kindness and comments. Even though she practiced hard at home, it seemed she was still a rookie in a few areas. After some time of eavesdropping in on their conversations, they finally came to the subject of attacking the Shinsengumi headquarters.

One of the men pointed out "They won't know what hit 'em!"

"Yeah, the Shinsengumi is just a bunch of worthless cowards who call themselves warriors!"

Another one of them men came forward and asked "Have we decided on a time yet?"

The man she was entertaining said "The boss said 2 days from now around this time!" As he said this he wrapped his arm around Chizuru and gave a little side comment "I'll be known throughout Kyoto, so if you wanna good husband then now's the time to choose!" He was looking at her, half drunk and laughing like a madman.

Feeling a bit uncomfortable in the position she was in with him, made her instincts bring up a small excuse to leave the room "I-It looks like we've run out of sake, I'm going to go fetch some more for us."

As she stood up to leave, the eyebrows of the man she was entertaining drew up in suspicion until a smirk full of interest spread across his face.

Chizuru swiftly left the room and headed to another room nearby to refill the sake; she almost spilt it when she heard the door slide open behind her. After reassuring the safety of the jug, she spun around to see who it was that entered. Who it was surprised her, and seemed to chill her bones as well. It was the man she sat with back in the room. As surprised as she was, she tried to act normal.

"W-What's the matter? I'll be back as soon as I'm done refilling this sake, so it's—" She was suddenly cut off by the man's voice.

"Were you that shy as to have to run away from me pretty eyes?" Chizuru jumped a bit noticing that he was getting the wrong idea.

"N-No, it's just, the sake—" She was again cut off by the man.

"You don't have to act all innocent around me beautiful; I'm just tryin' to be friendly." The man inched closer with every word, which made Chizuru force herself to back up against the wall.

Knowing that there was no escapes from this man, made a string of terror begin to slowly start threading itself with every advance that he made towards her. Right before his hand felt the sensation of every strand on her head, the door was thrown open, and from there a shadow dashed in and knocked the man down.

"Stay back!" the shadow would shout. Chizuru recognized the voice, it was Yamazaki's. Knowing that she was under the protection of someone else made all the tension leave her body and made her feel like dropping to the cool floor. But before she actually took herself to do that; the man who was just recently knocked down stood back up wiping the blood from his mouth onto the sleeve of his kimono.

"You little brat, what the hell do you think you're doing here?" he shouted at Yamazaki.

"Well….uhm…." Chizuru noticed that Yamazaki had begun to sweat while trying to come up with an excuse.

Even thought Yamazaki was a pretty neutral guy, he wasn't exactly like Saito. He couldn't come up with anything during situations like these, which makes him get nervous. Finally, Yamazaki's face brightened up with delight. Chizuru took that as a hint that he found a good excuse.

But what he shouted next almost made Chizuru drop "Can't you tell? I'm a ninja for the Yukimura clan! I have been sent here under orders to protect our princess!"

"I'm a princess?" Chizuru accidentally said it out loud.

Yamazaki raised a finger to his lips and shushed her "It's only an excuse so just roll with it."

Chizuru silently nodded her head as Yamazaki turned his head back towards the man who was down charging with his sword. Yamazaki blocked the attack without hurting himself or Chizuru then quickly hit the man on a pressure point in the neck.

The man fell and Yamazaki yelled "Hurry and run, that will only paralyze him for a second!" As she was told, half tripping Chizuru rushed out of the room and down the hall. Before she went across the room that she was serving, some of the men came out. They all looked at her with baffled faces.

One of them said "Where's our pal that was with you geisha?"

Chizuru backed up putting up her hands showing her defense. She didn't have her sword to pull out because she had to leave it at headquarters. Suddenly, most of them fell instantly fell to the floor and a chorus of moans. Behind them stood Saito, holding his sword in one hand and his sheath in the other.

"Chizuru, you keep on going." He said calmly.

"Y-Yes." With that she passed behind Saito and behind her as she run she could hear the men shouting from behind her. She kept on running until she ran into another group of soldiers. They weren't from where she was serving, but they knew what was going on. But they also had the wrong idea too. So as the rest did, they ran after Chizuru. Chizuru could barely keep up her pace with her tall sandals. Soon she rounded the corner to meet Yamazaki yet again. He called her over into another room, and trusting his instincts, she raced after him.

After she entered the room he quickly shut the door in an attempt to stop the men. Unfortunately, they tore through the sliding door and held their swords ready at Yamazaki.

"Princess, please stay back!" Yamazaki seemed serious for his role as the princess' ninja. He placed a protective arm over her to back her up more and then once the men got closer he shouted again "Yamazaki Clan Style: Tatami Mat Flip!" Then Yamazaki took the tatami mat beneath them and flipped it up so that all the men tripped and fell.

Yamazaki grabbed Chizuru's arm and rushed her outside the room. "Please keep running, Princess!"

Chizuru without needing to be commanded started down the halls, trying to find somewhere she'd be safe. While running she shouted out to herself "Why is this only happening to me?!"

Later, Chizuru finally ran across a room that had no one inside, and no activity going on outside it. She pushed open the door and slid it closed behind her. In a sweating mess, she dropped to the floor panting. She leaned back against the door and just sat there for a while.

'How did this happen?' she thought to herself.

She rested for at least 20 minutes before she decided it was safe to take a peek outside. She could still hear the footsteps pounding on the second floor, and thought that maybe they were only trying to find her up there.

Slowly and carefully, she took a hold of the door and slid it open. She poked her head out and analyzed her surroundings, making sure that no one would see her as she stepped out. When no one was in view, she stepped outside the candlelit room and took in a deep breath of fresh air. It felt to her like it's been forever since she last got a proper breath in. She looked up into the stars for answers to the chaos that erupted that night. Everything seemed to go wrong right when she tried to do something right.

All of a sudden, she heard feet against the wooden floorboards, and she quickly turned around expecting to see another man after her. To her surprise, the man that was always on her mind stood before her in the darkness. He had blonde flecked hair and rubies for eyes. His robe was made of silk and was colored white with golden strings holding the black sash in place.

"Kazama…" she made sure she whispered quiet enough so that he wouldn't hear her.

She remained aware that she was in disguise, so Kazama shouldn't be able to tell who she is. Before she could get a word out into the empty void, he spoke first.

"Sake," he said this with a devilish smile playing across his lips.

"Huh?" Chizuru looked confused before he said his next sentence.

"Pour me some sake. You are a geisha, aren't you?"

Chizuru jumped at his statement, and then quickly responded "Y-Yes, I'll go fetch some right now."

After she poured him some sake in the room she took cover in, he drank it silently, not bothering to say anything to her. It dragged on like this for a while until Kazama broke the silence again "You don't seem experienced for a geisha."

Chizuru showed a slight bit of worry on her face for that remark but tried to continued on carefully and normally "W-Well, I just started here today, I-I'm sorry if it displeases you…"

And just like that Kazama shot back with another remark "I thought that women who work at the Shimabara were born and raised here."

This time, the worry on Chizuru's face was visible and this made an even wider smile appear on Kazama's lips "W-Well, uhm….I….."

Kazama leaned forward and grasped one of Chizuru's arms in his hand. He brought her forward into his lap and held her face close to his "You honestly didn't think I would know it was you, Chizuru Yukimura?"

"What? But how did you—"

Kazama pulled the rest of her body into his lap and held her close to his chest. This made the memory of when she was being carried back to the Satsuma's mansion by him. She almost became enchanted by his smell until she noticed that he held her tighter than before. She instantly blushed and tried to pull away from his grasp only failing and allowing him to hold her even tighter.

"You dislike me that much?"

Chizuru heard this and almost felt sad that he thought that "N-No, I don't…"

"Then why do you pull away from me, you like it when I hold you like this, right? It was obvious when I carried you back that one time."

Chizuru tried struggling once again against his warmth while saying "That isn't the point! Just because I don't want to be held by you it doesn't mean I dislike you!"

Kazama used his free hand to bring her chin to face up into his face. Chizuru opened her eyes from the struggle and peered into his gentle eyes. Now she remembered when he first did this to her, and she didn't expect them to be soft like they are. They weren't rough like stone or gravel; they were just the gentleness that Kazama always hides away from everyone else. Chizuru stopped struggling only a little bit, but when Kazama drew their faces closer together, her face was flushed a bright pink.

Kazama's lips just barely brushed the top of hers, and then he paused a moment before filling in the rest of the gap he left. This was the second time that Chizuru got to feel the warmth that emanates from his lips. The first time she had pushed him away, and yet he saved her from those men after it. She leaned into the kiss that seemed to automatically call her under a spell that couldn't be broken. She hadn't even noticed the tears that had started to practically pour down her cheeks.

He had treated her with kindness, and she had only repaid him by pushing him away. It was a mystery to her as to why he would still do this to her, even though she had been so mean to him in the past. When Kazama pulled away from her lips, he found himself just looking back at her, and Chizuru the same thing. After realizing how she truly felt, she gently laid her head down onto his chest. The way he coddled her made her feel safe and at peace. She felt happy to be cared for by someone this much. Kazama took his finger and wiped some tears away from her eyes. After he did so, she came up and grabbed his hand. She held it against her face in a way of saying 'I just want to stay like this for a while.' She could feel the roughness of his hand, the roughness of being on the battlefield. But the warmth healed her so much.

She wanted to say the words 'I love you' to his so much at that moment. To make sure that her feelings got across. But alas, the only thing she could do was fall asleep inside his arms, into a never ending sleep spell, just like sleeping beauty. Only this beauty was masked by the beauty hiding her true feelings.

There will be another chapter. And thank you for the great support on my first story! I didn't think I would get this far with only my head. I need to stop ending the chapters with Chizuru falling asleep! _

This episode was a bit special because I didn't use the exact same scenes as from the episode.


	8. Chapter 8 - Proof

Chapter 8 – Proof

Chizuru awoke to the light of a flickering candle; it was still in the middlemost of the room, where it always was. Warm arms caressed her in a protective way. She was still being held by Kazama, and when she looked up at him, he was still awake. He looked down at her sleepy face and faced towards the door. From outside were screams and shouts of Chizuru's names. She recognized most of the voices; most of them were the voices that belonged to the Captains of the Shinsengumi.

"How long was I….?"

Kazama looked back down at her and responded, not waiting for her to finish the rest of the question "Only about 10 minutes."

"Oh…" not wanting to leave, she remained a few more minutes wrapped in his arms before she got up. Her legs felt a bit loose, like she hadn't used them in forever. She almost fell before Kazama helped her find her balance again.

"Th-Thank you…" the makeup on her face seemed to cover up the most of her blushing face "I have to get going now, everyone's looking for me." She seemed a bit upset that Kazama didn't seem the least bit disappointed.

Before she opened the door, he spoke "Don't get me wrong, the only reason I'm not taking you is because it wasn't my purpose for tonight."

Chizuru turned her gaze towards him, but not exactly on him.

"But next time we meet, I will take you." Kazama didn't look confident, but Chizuru didn't know if he was really trying too.

Chizuru began slowly "Even if you come to get me," she turned away a bit "I won't come with you." Kazama said nothing and Chizuru started again "I don't…. want to go with someone, when I don't even know how they feel."

Chizuru almost planted a step outside the door until Kazama said "Do you want to know?" The tension grew immensely with that question.

Chizuru didn't look at him because of the tears streaming down her cheeks. The tears left burning trails down her cheeks. When she spoke, she tried hard to make sure she didn't sound like she was crying "No, not right now anyway. I'll wait." Chizuru had thrown another white lie out into the open. She didn't want to know, she was terrified of what the answer might be. Because since the beginning, this has only been about replenishing their species; she didn't want to know the answer, but she wanted to continue living in the dream of all of it. It didn't matter to her if it was only an illusion.

With that last word, she left the room, not bothering to look behind. Whether he knew it or not, walking away was the hardest part for Chizuru. She felt cowardly, uncertain, and worst of all, a liability. She knew that Kazama had other things to deal with than spend his time with her. With the entire war going on and all, she never expects him to be where he is. This whole thing started at the bridge, and started tearing her apart from the inside. It was then that Chizuru fully realized it, a truth that she didn't want to believe. She dropped to the floor in a fit of tears and frustration which eventually lead the Shinsengumi to her location.

Her hands covered her face, but not the sobs that came with it. The remainder of that night went smoothly for the most part. Chizuru cried herself to sleep at the Shimabara, and got carried back to headquarters. The Shinsengumi apologized for the damage caused, and with a few casualties, prevented the Choushuu's spies from attacking. Everyone else seemed to be having it easy. Chizuru wanted to be like them, carefree, useful, and happy.

Chizuru was still in their room when they went about discussing further plans about the attack. They couldn't ignore the fact that other Choushuu men escaped and saw Chizuru's face. They knew she was with them now.

Chizuru was in the dream world, a place that seemed almost perfect. Until caught by a virus that tore apart what your head was thinking and throws it away, keeping all the terrors to swarm over your mind. Chizuru was having one of those dreams. Blood was splattered everywhere. Her arm was bleeding tremendous amounts of blood. And two men in front of her were holding kitchen knives, also colored with blood. Right before the nearest man threw down his knife, Chizuru dodged it by launching herself out of the way. Trying to use her arm to get away hurt, but she got past it and got back up running herself into another corner. The second man came at her and thrust down his weapon onto her shoulder. The attack hit her. Her arm went completely numb, there was more blood than before, and her eyes were going cloudy. The man who had hit her started laughing maniacally, as if he was enjoying it. She looked up at him, and got a good look at his figure.

His hair was raven black, and his eyes were the color of violets, but they were warped and didn't look sane at all. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and he wore a jacket that was blue with a white pattern. Chizuru realized who it was. Right before she whispered the name, the man brought his knife down and she woke up. She stared up at her ceiling. She was back at headquarters in her room; she wasn't in the place she was in the dream. She sat up and looked at her door. No light was streaming on in, so she suggested to herself that it must still be night.

She fell back onto her futon, arm over her face; she was sweating and panting, mostly because the dream seemed so real, and that the man in her dream was….

"Hijikata…" Chizuru whispered. But why had she dreamt of him?

Speaking of the dream, she recognized the place where it was. It was small, and there was a stand full of vegetables. It was the vegetable stand at the market. She sat back up and thought about it.

'Why would I dream about such a specific place as that?' Chizuru wrapped herself up in her own arms 'The winter cold must be getting to me.' But even though she said that, she couldn't ignore how real the dream had been. So she got and wrapped herself up in warm clothing to go out.

The last thing she grabbed was her short sword, now half buried under her futon. She slid open her door and took a peek outside. Since it seemed that no one was patrolling that area, she slipped outside the door and carefully slid it closed. She felt the cold begin to nip at her hands, but she ignored it and pushed on.

She slipped through the halls with ease, dodging the patrolling men and staying in the darkness. It was difficult for her to keep it up every now and then. Demons seemed to have better eyesight than humans, Chizuru eventually figured that out when she thought she almost got caught by someone, but they apparently couldn't see her as well as she could see them. With that in mind, she took it a little easier on the way to the gates.

But upon getting there, she saw two men just standing at the gates 'They must be stationed there for now,' Chizuru reassured herself 'They should be moving on sometime soon.'

But as long as Chizuru waited, they didn't budge. Were they expecting something? Chizuru saw no chance of moving past them. Then she remembered the way that Okita had shown her, but she knew that getting over the well for her may cause a racket, and it would be difficult. Either way, she had no choice in this situation. So she headed back down the hall towards the well. Dodging the men patrolling now became easier with doing it the second time around.

After a few more minutes of roaming through the dark halls, she reached the well. She walked up to it, trying to muster up a plan on how she would make it. She didn't have any acrobatics skills like Okita, but she did have the extra strength that came with being a demon. Could she just pull herself up? Chizuru thought about it for a while before checking her surroundings one last time.

She grabbed the roof of the well, and tried to pull herself up. She fell hard on her butt the first time. She sat up quickly, trying to find out if anyone had heard or seen her. Thankfully, no one was around. And since Chizuru was no person to give up on the first try, she tried again. This time, she tried using the wall the well was against as a support. It worked, but Chizuru almost fell again when trying to maintain her balance on the well. Afterwards, she clambered up onto the wall, holding onto it with both her arms and legs. But when she finally was on top of it, a light appeared in the hallway in front of her.

The man holing it began turning to look where Chizuru was. This startled Chizuru so badly, that one of her legs gave out and she fell sideways, over the wall and onto the hard ground. The shock from the fall sent shivers running up and down her spine. When she tried to get up, it only made the pain worse so she had to sit there for a few moments and endure the pain. Finally, when the pain seemed to have left her body, she made an effort to sit up.

Everything felt a bit sore, but of course it would, Chizuru had to stretch her limbs a lot to climb up there. But even though the aches and pains were slightly annoying her, she tried her best to push on to the market. On the way there, she felt like she was being watched, after a few minutes Chizuru grew a little tense and started jogging a bit faster. And soon she was pushed to having to run when out of the blue came a group of ronin (stray samurai), or at least that's what they looked like to Chizuru. They were all smiling and laughing like bad guys out of a story book

Chizuru drew her sword and stood her ground, but even she had to admit that she was nervous. Ever since coming into the hands of the Shinsengumi, she never had to get her hands dirty in a fight. But unfortunately that night, luck was not on her side.

"What do you want?" Chizuru shouted out defensively "I have nothing on me!"

One of the men snickered and said "You really think we want what's on you?"

Chizuru gulped and thought about what he was saying. 'If they don't want what I have then what do they want?' Suddenly a memory flew back at her, the memory from when Kazama saved her from the men in the alley. Which means they might want to sell her off, they couldn't possibly want anything else as a woman, she was disguised as a man after all. Finally, added to the tension, a man with a crimson red robe stepped out from behind the men in front of her.

"You're allied with the Shinsengumi, aren't you?"

Chizuru's grip tightened on her sword, and she responded "I don't know what you're talking about, so please—"

The man came forward with his sword and knocked her back a few meters "Don't play dumb, we saw come out from their headquarters," Chizuru didn't respond, but remained where she was in a defensive position "We have a little bone to pick with them, so I'm sure you won't mind if we happen to borrow you for a bit." He said this is with a smirk that gave Chizuru a whole new meaning to terror. Then from behind, a blow came to her neck right above her spine. And them her whole body grew limp and fell to the ground.

The man who was just talking to her leaned down towards her face and laughed "We'll definitely get something out of the Shinsengumi now!" he turned to his men and barked orders "Somebody hurry and tie her up then carry her to the base. We're heading out at first light."

With that, Chizuru's consciousness faded into a swirling black hole, covered with blood and regrets, and the last words the muttered were "Kazama…save me….please."

She woke up covered with bruises, and her body was even sorer than before "I must've been dragged here…" she managed to cough up a few words.

She was lying on a dirt floor, it seemed to be and underground cellar. And Chizuru's thesis was proved when she tried to move her hand. Her hand was being held by a chain. So was her other one. She was able to sit up though, so her body wasn't suspended by any weights. She took in her surroundings; she was in a small room and the floor was just the dirt you'd find on every day ground. The walls were the same which is why she came to the conclusion that it was an underground cellar. What was in front of her was a wooden cage. But she seemed to be on the inside of that cage. She sighed and tried to listen to see if she could hear anyone close to her.

The only thing she could hear was the sound of chains moving together and the faint sound of footsteps coming closer. She waited to see who would turn the corner, whether it was to be an enemy or ally. She obviously doubted it was an ally, since she was chained up like so. From around the corner appeared a man, looking to be about in his 40's. The man spoke.

"Is this the runt you caught coming out of the Shinsengumi's headquarters?"

Another man appeared from around the corner but he was mostly in the shadows so she couldn't tell what he looked like "Yes sir."

The first man leaned down closer to Chizuru's cell and asked "Sure they'll back down for a kid like this? Ha, I'll be damned if they do."

The man in the shadows waited a moment before speaking again "With all due respect boss, the wagons are outside and are almost done with the preparations for heading out, I need to get him moving."

The older man snickered again and said "Did you send the message?"

The man in the shadows posture made it look like he had turned towards the 'boss' and responded "Yes, we sent it the proper way."

Chizuru thought about it for a moment 'They're probably looking for the Shinsengumi to surrender, but what did they send?'

They obviously didn't want to let the Shinsengumi know that she was dead, so how or what did they send? That was when it hit Chizuru. Her short sword was missing.

'That must've been what they sent, probably along with a note to meet somewhere too.' Chizuru wanted to say something to them, but when she tried, she finally noticed that something was covering her mouth; so all that came out was muffled noises.

The old man laughed for a while this time and finally told the other one "Bring 'im up so we can put him into the wagon. I'll leave soon after you guys do." With that the man left and the other came into her cell. He took off the chains and tied her hands behind her back with just rope. He picked her up like it was nothing and threw her over his shoulder like a bag of rice.

He carried her out of the cellar and up a few flights of stairs. Finally, they came to an outside spot that appeared to be in another alley.

The men walked up the alley and lifted her from his shoulder. She closed her eyes for impact and sure enough she hit a wagon's trailer end. They surrounded her with straw to make things look normal and cover her with a blanket.

She couldn't tell if it was the man speaking or not "You better not move, if you do I'll take your life right in front of your Shinsengumi friends."

At that command Chizuru remained still for the longest time. It seemed to her that they were still loading their soldiers. Were they planning to have a sidelines war with them? Chizuru waited for the wagon to move, but it didn't budge. After about 15 minutes, she knew something was wrong. The voices that were shouting to each other had completely been muted. They all seemed to have headed in one direction and never come back. Then it wasn't long before she heard footsteps getting closer to the wagon.

'They must've finally come back.' She pondered.

But she was proven wrong when the sheet covering her was lifted and leaning over her was the face and body of Kazama. Chizuru was dazzled by his appearance; he was covered in blood all over. But against the sun he seemed almost angelic. She almost laughed at her inner comment; 'an angelic demon, huh?'

He lifted her up and turned her around to start cutting off the ropes "Are you hurt?" he asked.

Chizuru waited a moment then answered "N-No."

Even though he was done, cutting off the ropes that bound her, she still refused to look at him. He didn't ask her to look at him either. Chizuru's only reason for not looking at him was because she couldn't stand to face him after that night at Shimabara. Kazama almost spoke again but closed his mouth before he could say anything.

Then finally he leaned forward and embraced her. Chizuru didn't fight back, mostly because she was startled at the sudden advance made towards her. The she really started emotionally when he spoke.

"This is my answer." He held her tighter than before which made Chizuru break up in a deep sensation that took her from emotional to ecstatic. Tears rolled down her face as if they were from a spring of steaming water. She leaned back into him and hugged his arms that now embraced her.

This time she knew she could say it. And she also knew she had to say it soon or her courage would be drained again. So she released herself from his grasp and turned around to face him. She looked up at him with a flushed face, both from her tears and embarrassment. She reached up with her hands and reached over his shoulders, onto his upper back. She rested her head on his shoulder and spoke very softly into his ear.

"I think," she paused for a moment preparing for the final words "I'm in love with you." At that moment the strength from her body failed her and she had to lean onto Kazama more than before.

He wrapped his arms around her body and lifted her up "We have to get you back to your friends, I heard the men talking before I got here, they were headed for a secluded area about a half a mile from Kyoto. I'll take you there."

"Okay."

Chizuru still clinging onto to him, allowed herself to be carried throughout town. She didn't even care about the stares she received from the people around, because this was different from last time. She savored every moment of it. But sooner or later, they finally reached the destination. They waited a few moments which seemed like only a few minutes to Chizuru, men with blue robes walked in from the opposite direction. They had several men with them.

But Chizuru wanted to show that it was alright, so she had Kazama set her down so she could walk over to them. But from behind came a rush of air. Enough to make Chizuru stumble; From behind came fresh blood, and there was suddenly a second man besides just Kazama. What she saw was enough to have her let loose a blood curdling scream.

The suspense :D. There will be another chapter, but just you wait, you may know what's gonna happen, but you won't!


	9. Chapter 9 - Crimson Brilliance

Chapter 9 – Crimson Brilliance

Chizuru let loose a bloodcurdling scream. Behind her Kazama had a line of steel protruding from his chest; and his kimono was drenched in blood, not another's blood, but his own blood. Chizuru looked behind Kazama, and saw a man holding the other end of the blade, quickly without thinking Chizuru thrust herself at the man. The man fell backwards and Kazama fell to the ground, luckily, Chizuru caught him before he could make full contact. She held him in her lap and caressed him as he had done to her. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and onto Kazama's cheeks. The pain inside Chizuru's chest made her feel like she was going to burst.

The man she pushed down had run, and the Shinsengumi finally arrived to Chizuru's aid.

Saito stood back up and said to Hijikata "Allow me to go after the man."

Hijikata nodded to him and turned to Heisuke "Heisuke have a cloth or something ready. We need to pull out the sword."

"Right," Heisuke dug around in his kimono for a bit until he found what he was looking for "Here, I'm ready."

"On the count of three, on two—" on the count of three Chizuru embraced Kazama in hopes that he could feel as little pain as possible. Chizuru knew that even if their wounds would heal fast, they could die if too much blood leaks out in the short time it takes to heal. Plus, no matter what kind of demon, they could always feel pain.

"Heisuke press down on the wound to stop it from bleeding." Hijikata said "We'll bring over something to carry him on."

Chizuru looked down at Kazama; his face had only gone a little bit pale, which means not that much blood has escaped yet. She cradled him in her lap ever so gently to make sure that he was comfortable. For the moment, he was passed out in her lap, and to Chizuru, even if he were to be pricked by the lightest of needles, he might shatter into a thousand pieces. She held his head to her chest, praying if for even a millionth of a chance that he come out unscathed.

After a few minutes of Heisuke pressing down on the wound, a wagon arrived to take Kazama away. Chizuru requested that she be able to ride in back with him, and she was allowed. She had Kazama use her lap as a pillow, to make sure that he was nice and comfortable for the ride back to headquarters.

On the way back, the stroked his hair, it felt so silky, and so soft. How did he manage to keep it this way with all he's been through? Chizuru giggled at the thought of him brushing his own hair. She looked down at his sleeping face and the hugged him. She tried hugging him so he wouldn't wake up in the midst of it. Despite losing blood, he seemed to warm and full of life. This made her not want to lose him even more.

When they arrived, Chizuru made sure that she stuck with him every point of the way. She helped clean and bandage the wound, and even helped lay him down onto the futon. She felt like she was acting like how a mother would. Taking care of her children, when they get sick; unfortunately though, this was a different case.

She sat down by his bedside and held his hand, it was warm, and reminded her of all the times he had embraced her, carried her. She thought of all the things that he'd done for her, and then thought of all the things she had done for him. She felt frustrated with herself for not being able to do more. Then she thought back to when the man had stabbed Kazama.

She should've known their leader was going to come back; she was there when he said he'd catch up later. She covered her head with her hands and silently screamed. She could've done more; she could've prevented this from happening if only she had paid more attention. Before retiring to her room, Chizuru looked down on Kazama.

She blushed madly at the thought of what she wanted to do. She looked away from his sleeping face and looked towards the wall. She tried to think of something else, but it didn't help. Her hands trembled in embarrassment and finally she leaned down towards Kazama and planted a small kiss on his forehead. Then without looking behind she left the room.

Even when the people she passed raised a hand to say hello, she blindly ignored them, rushing down quickly to her room. It was near morning, but she had barely got a wink of sleep that night. Feelings rolled her over and pinned her down against her will, and against her will controlled her. When Chizuru realized that she was still thinking of Kazama, she quickly raised her hands and brought them both down hard on her cheeks. She thought that the pain would drown her thoughts away.

"Owww…." While holding her cheeks in pain, Hijikata caught her from down the hallway.

"Chizuru," Hijikata looked at her, confused as to why she hit herself "Why did you do that?" he walked over to her.

Chizuru grew flushed and embarrassed "W-Well, ummm…..n-nothing really." She looked away in shame.

He looked at her cheeks, and noticed how red it had gotten "You'll need to bandage that up." He grabbed her hand "Here, I'll get you something."

Chizuru stopped him using her hand and said "N-No, it's really alright, Vice Commander Hijikata."

"No really," Hijikata took her hand again "I needed to talk to you anyway."

Chizuru whispered to herself "You do?"

Later, they arrived within his study, two cups of tea steaming against the hard wood.

Hijikata sat staring hard at his cup of tea until Chizuru finally spoke up "Uhm, Hijikata?"

Hijikata looked startled for a second until bringing his gaze to rest yet again on Chizuru "Yes?"

"You did bring me here to talk about something, didn't you?"

Hijikata looked down again, and then responded "Yes, as you're well aware, Kazama is with the Satsuma for now."

"Yes."

"Well the Satsuma, they're planning on withdrawing from the alliance with the Aizu Clan."

Chizuru was shocked. She sat there in silence, waiting for him to say 'just kidding' or anything to make that moment end. But he just sat there, looking at her. That's when she realized that it wasn't a lie. She looked towards the ground and asked a question.

"Hijikata," he looked down at her in guilt "Do they have a purpose?"

"No, if they did they didn't tell us, which means they are a possible future enemy."

But Chizuru knew that if the captains of the Satsuma were smart enough, they would notice that he spends more time somewhere else, which means they want to pull him away from whatever it is, because it's distracting him with their plans. They must know how powerful Kazama is, so they probably wouldn't care if they broke an alliance or two.

She clenched her fists to restrain her feelings, but Hijikata noticed right away "I know that he's saved you twice now, bu—"

"That's not it!" Chizuru without noticing shouted despite Hijikata being right across from her "Please excuse me." She said afterwards.

She went back to her room and hid her face in the futon. She wanted to hide away from everything bad in the world, and to never wake up from a wonderful dream. A dream that would have no beginning, and no end; where everything went right, then without knowing, Chizuru drifted off into sleep.

She awoke at the crack of dawn, when the sun's light just reached her door. She noticed how messed up her futon was, and realized she must had been tossing and turning all night. She never had a dream, which made it all the more regretful.

But she had one thing good to look forward to that morning. She quickly rushed to get dressed and look presentable to Kazama. She had been assigned to look after him while he was here. This morning she had to clean and replace his bandages, then serve him breakfast.

She tied the sash around her waist, and then she went to the infirmary where Kazama was staying. When she passed the closet, she quickly grabbed some extra bandages, water, and rag. Kazama's room was the third door to her left.

She walked to the door and slowly pushed it open, to prevent any sound from escaping just in case Kazama was still sleeping. But he wasn't, he was sitting up looking down at his wound, one free hand on his lap. He wore a white kimono, not the usual one that he wore though. That one had to get washed with all the blood on it. He noticed Chizuru staring at him, and he let out a small laugh.

Chizuru blushed because she noticed why he was laughing, and excused herself inside the room where she placed everything next to her on the floor. While arranging everything, Kazama looked down at her.

"Are we at the Shinsengumi's headquarters?"

Chizuru looked back up at him and answered "Yes."

"Then you," he looked down at his bandaged wound.

Chizuru smiled as he had noticed it was her who did it "Yes, I cleaned and bandaged your wounds for you."

"There wasn't any reason too; demons heal faster than normal humans. You should know this."

Chizuru looked away while wetting the rag in the water "I have my own secret reasons." She said it so Kazama could barely hear her.

When she turned back around, she realized what she had to do. To clean his wound again would require halfway undressing him, and removing the current bandages on his chest. Chizuru made sure she wasn't facing him so he wouldn't see how red her face was. She resisted the urge to dump the bucket of water on her face, to make everything she was thinking of then to go away.

Kazama noticed this and hid a small smirk. He decided to mess with her head for a moment or two, so he wrapped his arms around her and brought her closer to him. Chizuru could feel his warm breath across her neck as he brought his head down onto his shoulder.

He heart almost jumped out of her chest. Under his control, Chizuru wasn't able to respond to the sudden advancement until she came back to her senses and struggled a little "Kazama, please stop teasing me!"

A smile played across his face as he brought his mouth to her ear and whispered "Who said I was teasing?"

Chizuru froze up and succumbed to his embrace. She remembered back after he untied her, how he had hugged her told her his answer. It made her feel all warm inside, like eating a really good soup that was freshly made. She smiled at herself, hiding it in the arms that were grasping her. But after a few minutes of coddling her, she spoke.

"I need to clean your wound, Kazama." It felt normal to her now to say it.

"I don't need any wound cleaned, in fact, it's all healed now."

"Yeah but," she broke free from his grasp and looked up at him in the face "If I don't change it, then I won't have an excuse to be here anymore."

Kazama was expressionless, and he was that way most of the time unless he was teasing people Chizuru had noticed. So as she had said, Kazama allowed her to 'clean' and 'bandage' his 'wound.'

The once she was done, she said "I have to go make you some breakfast now."

When she got up to leave Kazama leaped up and caught her hand. She quickly turned around, small blush marks appearing on his face.

Kazama said "Aren't you going to eat?"

"Yes, but I eat with everyone else in the dining area."

Kazama thought about this a second and then spoke his resolution "Take me to eat with you."

Chizuru jumped in reaction to her heart skipping a beat, and then she said "I'll ask the Captain, just stay here, I'll be right back." She left the room without another word to him.

She held one hand up to her face to hide how red it had become. While on the way there she kept repeating one thing in her head.

'Stupid Kazama, why did you have to go and say that? You're making me too happy right now.' But secretly under her breath, she hid a small grin.

Sorry I cut the fanfic a bit short here! There will be another chapter that I already have planned out so look forward to it!


	10. Chapter 10 - A Day of Differences

Chapter 10 – A Day of Differences

Chizuru led Kazama down the hallway towards the dining area. Kazama didn't say anything, and neither did Chizuru. It made the atmosphere awkward and silent, the only sounds were of their feet brushing against the wooden floor. This is why Kazama made Chizuru so irritated at times, he never spoke a word to her, the only things he could say either had to be sarcastic or something he's not serious about. He can only say the important things in the heated up moments. And he did things as he pleased, he didn't care if anyone else wasn't comfortable with it.

While Chizuru thought about it, she almost passed the dining area without noticing it. She sat on her knees and slowly slid the door open, to reveal Kazama to the rest of the Shinsengumi. Hijikata seemed to be unhappy about the choice that he had given Chizuru, but when Koundo started talking about it, he had no choice but to let him.

Unlike the rest, Koundo invited him in with a warm smile "Come in now, Kazama. You can sit with Chizuru over there." He pointed to two empty spots next to Hijikata and Sano.

Kazama looked at Chizuru and waited for her to go to the appointed spot before he did. As she started walking, she could feel the hot stares behind her at Kazama. Kazama obviously didn't seem to care in the least; in fact, she could see him slightly smirking at the mess of intensity in the room. Chizuru tried to remain low profile when she began eating, but the dreadful silence of the room wasn't helping.

Finally, Koundo raises his hand up to say something, before Kazama suddenly pulls Chizuru into a tight embrace. So much for Chizuru's plan to remain low profile; Hijikata almost jumped up from where he was sitting when it happened, the rest of everyone gave cold, icy stares in his direction. Chizuru's face was as red as an apple, especially when she tried to escape, but Kazama noticed and held on tighter.

He was obviously trying to taunt the Shinsengumi for his own entertainment. This was what normally got Chizuru irritated about him, he didn't care what others thought, and he loved a good fight. Not the fights that Heisuke likes though, a mental fight, even a fight with words is fine with him. All Chizuru could simply do was sit there, and await the outcome of it.

She could tell that Hijikata was still on edge, still slightly standing up in his seat. He wore an expression of frustration, and distrust. It seemed that what he told Chizuru of the Satsuma was true. Finally after a while of intense stares, Hijikata stood up.

"I'm heading back to my room for a bit." He seemed to growl the last part out.

After Kazama's eyes followed Hijikata out, he exchanged a look with Okita. Okita had been giving him the death glare since the beginning, but now he wore a look of sarcasm, but it was different. It had a bit of anger mixed in. Kazama closed his eyes a moment and then opened them again and stood up.

He took Chizuru's hand and made her stand up with him "I'm already full, show me around."

This time, the entire group of men in the room jumped up. They didn't say anything though, but she could tell that they weren't happy. So thinking that it was the best idea to get Kazama out of the line of fire, she agreed to show him around and swiftly left the room. Behind her she heard the yelling and complaining of the Shinsengumi.

'Maybe it would've been better if he stayed in his room…' she thought to herself.

As they walked, she showed him every room that they used, but when they passed the studies where everyone stayed, she had to make sure that they he didn't go snooping around in other's stuff.

Hijikata had told Chizuru to keep him under tight surveillance, and that Yamazaki would be nearby in case anything happened. Chizuru could see why, him being with the Satsuma and all. But to her, Kazama was different from the Satsuma. He had a heart, even if he didn't admit it. Chizuru saw him in a different light, a bright and clear one. She realized then that she didn't want to ever be separated from him.

As they approached the garden, she began to want o know more, curiosity. She wanted to know, if he was planning to stay with the Satsuma. So she looked down at the wooden floor until they reached the garden and were in it.

They stood beneath the biggest tree; it had no cherry blossoms on it, but it was covered with the purest of snow. He stared up at the snow, as if waiting for something to happen. This brought Chizuru's mind off the Satsuma and onto Kazama's curiosity for snow.

"Is something wrong?" Chizuru leaned over to peer at Kazama's face.

Without looking at her, he responded "No, it's just that," he paused a moment "we rarely get snow in the west."

Chizuru looked confused for a second, and then brought a hand up to her mouth as she started giggling. This brought Kazama's attention to her.

"I didn't say anything funny." He said.

"Wiping the tears from her eyes, she responded "I know; it's just that," she laughed a bit more "you looked like a child staring up at the snow."

Kazama didn't have a comeback for that, so he had a look of irritation on the entire time.

"What do you say then, Kazama?" she asked him.

"What do you mean?" he was still wearing his expression of irritation.

"Would you like to play in the snow with me?"

Kazama thought a moment then said "That's just childish."

Chizuru laughed a moment then said again "But when you go back, then—"

Chizuru quickly held a hand up to her mouth. She looked up at him, a worried look filling up into her eyes. Kazama looked down at her, his expression hadn't changed, but it seemed that he had grown even madder now.

"Where did you hear that?" was the first thing that he said.

Chizuru looked down and let her hand rest at her side. She looked around for help, but there was none. Yamazaki must still be somewhere nearby.

"Tell me." He persisted.

"I'm sorry," her response was rather fast "Hijikata told, so I would be ready when you left." She backed up a couple of steps "I didn't mean to bring it up now, I'm sorry…"

Chizuru looked about ready to cry from the sudden impact of words. She couldn't stand the mentality of them. So sad and misfortunate; she held both her hands up to her face to hide the tears now rolling down her cheeks. Then, without warning, warm hands surrounded her on both sides, eventually traveling down to her side. They pulled her against a warm chest, coddling her up like a warm blanket in the winter cold. She buried her face into his chest, letting the small sobs out bit by bit, until her shoulders joined the sobs in unison.

But eventually, she hears her name being called out to, she had almost forgotten. She pulled away from Kazama and looked in the direction of the yelling, they hadn't quite yet rounded the corner, but she could tell it was Heisuke.

"I'm sorry Kazama, I have patrol today. I need to go out with them now." Before she pulled entirely away, Kazama grabbed her hand and spoke.

"I'm coming with you." He looked confident in his words, so Chizuru gave it a small thought, and then sighed.

"You can't cause any trouble." She waved her finger in the air "And you have to do what they say, even if you dislike it."

Kazama grew irritated at the thought of someone else telling him what to do. He looked away like a child would when they start pouting. Chizuru found this to be one of his charms.

'I guess he has a cute side to himself too.' She giggled.

In any case, when Chizuru ran to fetch her short sword, Kazama followed after her at a slow walk. The white kimono he had on fit the theme of winter perfectly, it almost made Chizuru blush to think about it.

Before she left for the main gate, she had to make sure that Kazama wore a thick coat over his kimono. She didn't want him to get frostbite. But then while looking for it she thought to herself.

'Oh, demons don't seem to get frostbite, do they?' Chizuru noticed this while she was outside. No matter how cold the snow seemed, she never did get cold. Maybe the body of a demon insulates itself somehow.

So with a sigh Chizuru closed the door behind her, and continued on to the gates. Kazama made sure he was behind her at all times, because it seemed that he noticed Yamazaki's presence moving. He kept his eyes on the shadows, watching for movement. Nothing happened the entire way there though. Nothing notable, from what Chizuru could see. But finally Chizuru had an itching question.

"Uhm, Kazama?" she stopped walking, as did Kazama.

"What do you want?" he directed his attention from the shadows to her.

"About before, when you saved me from that group of men," she kept her back to him.

"What about it?"

"Well, what you said then, when you told me that it was your answer, did you mean it?" small tears began escaping from her "Because, well….I don't want to, to fall in love with somebody…who doesn't even love me back." She wiped a few tears from her eyes.

The next moment, Chizuru thought her heart was going to burst. Kazama spoke "Does it matter whether or not demons love each other? It's better to help the restoration of demons; love shouldn't have anything to do with it."

Chizuru quickly turned around in surprise; Kazama had a different look in his eyes.

'That's all it was?' she turned back around and smiled to herself sadly 'I should've known better, Kazama only cares for the restoration of the demons. How could I have been so stupid?' she continued down to the gates, masking her sobs with warm smiles the rest of the way there.

But the entire way there, Kazama had a different aura. Like he had a different personality, a different look in his crimson eyes; she wanted nothing more than to forget about it, she had been such a fool.

'I guess we're more different than I first realized.' She said silently.

When they reached the gates, the first thing that Okita and Heisuke noticed was Kazama, dragging his feet behind her.

Okita stood up straighter and asked Chizuru "Hey Chizuru, what's he doing here?"

Chizuru noticed Okita's annoyed expression and quickly tried to restrain him "H-He said that he wanted to come along, I'll watch him, so don't worry."

Okita noticed that Chizuru wasn't lying, and decided to pass on it "I don't mind if he comes but," he turned to Kazama "one slip up, or on slip down, I'll kill you on the spot, Kazama Chikage."

Kazama smirked and said "I'd like to see you try."

Okita quickly placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, but before Heisuke could stop it, a shadow's hand suddenly appeared on Okita's hand "It would be best if you didn't."

The hand and shadow belonged to Yamazaki; Chizuru was right about him still being nearby.

Then he turned to Kazama and instructed "I would advise you as to not try anything too."

That was when Chizuru noticed that Kazama also had his hand on the hilt of his sword. Kazama only closed his eyes and took his hand off the sword. Okita did the same and ultimately just started going out the gates with the troop. Heisuke followed after with Kazama and Chizuru walking after them.

She couldn't keep her mind off what Kazama had said to her earlier. Her eyes were empty and full of nothing. She had become enraptured in that very moment, reliving it many times.

'What had that answer been about before then? Why did he have to hug me like that?' she kept hanging on the reasons he could have said that to her. But in the end, she could only hang on the reason he gave; for the 'restoration of demons.'

'I wonder if that's how he truly feels…' she thought to herself.

While she thought of this to herself, she noticed that Kazama had disappeared. She stopped for a second and glanced around, looking for him. She caught sight of him, way back in the crowd, walking in the opposite direction. She glanced back towards the direction that the Shinsengumi officers were leading the troops in, and then back to where Kazama was. But when she looked back, he had disappeared.

Worried as she was for him, she abandoned the patrol and went in the direction he had headed. She looked all throughout the market, hoping that he had just found something he liked. But unfortunately, he was nowhere to be found. That's when she decided to search in the mostly deserted parts of town.

There were only three spots that she knew that was most of the time deserted. The closest one is in a big alleyway. Or more precisely, a big spot behind the alleyway; she went on ahead towards the location, which was only around the corner from where she currently was. Thoughts raced through her head faster than her heartbeat could manage. And though all the excuses she made up on the way about him leaving all of a sudden were surprisingly believable, she couldn't bring herself to believe them.

She knew that Kazama wouldn't leave for just some stupid little reason. And with that, she finally arrived at the alleyway. She slowly crept down the alley, to the very end. She couldn't see anything but blackness, no movement or sound came from the end. But what she also noticed from being a demon was that her instincts were better than most. She knew that there was a presence down there. In fact, she could tell that there was more than one.

If she concentrated hard enough, she could hear the breathing of each one. She thought she counted three in all. As she neared the end of the alleyway, she heard someone speaking. She didn't know whose voice it was, and she was too far away to make out words. She pressed herself up against the wall, trying her best not to make too much of any sound against the wood.

As she came closer to the corner, her heartbeat sped up at least two times the speed it was originally. Finally, she came close enough to make out words.

"Shiranui, make sure you get the right information from the Choushuu." The man seemed to have a much deeper voice than the rest.

"Yeah, yeah gramps, you don't need to worry about anything," the man paused then went on "and you Kazama? Are you still going to hang around that female demon?"

Chizuru's eyes widened at the sound of Kazama's voice "No need to worry about her, she shouldn't be much of a problem, she doesn't seem to have much any experience with swords, fighting, or her demon side. She shouldn't be much of a problem taking."

"Okay if you say so, but don't screw up this time."

Chizuru, thinking this might be the best time to leave, quietly started moving in the opposite direction.

But before she could successfully make a good escape she heard someone whistle then speak "Seems she's pretty good at eavesdropping on conversations though," she heard a small grunt come from Kazama.

Then Kazama spoke "Come one out, female demon."

Chizuru's heart seemed to skip a beat, and she almost tripped at the sound of him. It sounded more like a command than a request too, so Chizuru stood there in silence, running through options in her head. But soon, came the time to make the choice.

Don't worry, don't worry! The story is still based upon Kazama x Chizuru! This was just a little twist ending, hope everybody can understand! Next chapter will be fun to write!


	11. Chapter 11 - Misunderstood

Chapter 11 – Misunderstood

Chizuru stood there, taking in the spinning world in front of her. She didn't know what to do, Kazama and the other two men already knew that she was there, so how could she? Then she heard soft footsteps behind her, slowly growing louder with each step. Finally, her first chance came and she made a run for it. Suddenly, she heard the sound if a sheath and sword sliding past one another, and the sound of air sliced right past her shoulder.

But Chizuru saw that the aim had not missed. Her shoulder spout bright red liquid, oozing out from the deep cut in her arm. The impact made her fall forward and onto her knees, but she did not waste any time in hurrying to get back up and onto her feet again. With the sound of fast feet moving towards her, her heart almost leaped out of her chest when a shadow fell away the light in front of her.

She ran into the shadow of a man it seemed, and noticed that whoever had been chasing her before had ceased doing so and stood in place behind her.

"Already getting you into trouble again, Chizuru?" she recognized the voice, and almost broke into a teary fit before she brought herself back to reality.

"Okita?" she clarified.

Then a familiar face popped out from behind him revealing a smile of sincerity "Hey there, Chizuru!"

"Heisuke, but what are you doing here?"

Okita moved Chizuru behind him towards where Heisuke was in a protective manner "You might want to stand back Chizuru, rematches can get messy."

Chizuru had almost forgotten about her pursuer. She quickly spun around to face Kazama, an irritated look splitting his face. Behind him came two other men. One that seemed older than the other, he had blue eyes with deep red hair tied back in a low pony tail. The other man was younger; he had light eyes and dark black hair tied back up in a high pony tail, a lot longer than the red-haired one.

The one who sounded like the man named Shiranui lifted a pistol and pointed it straight at Okita "Looks like we have a full party here." He snickered.

"You really think so pal?" Okita said, but he didn't seem that confident in his words.

But then Heisuke stepped up in front of Chizuru and drew his sword "Think we have a chance?" he quietly whispered to Okita.

"Depends." He said, still smiling.

Then, Kazama went back to a neutral stance, turning himself around to walk the other way. Chizuru almost felt her instincts reach out a hand towards him, not wanting him to leave. But she held her hand down with her other one, hoping nobody noticed her recent reflex.

Kazama stopped when Shiranui spoke "Bored already, Kazama?"

Kazama only turned enough to reveal one crimson eye to Chizuru "I got what I came for, now just comes the time to wait."

The red-haired one turned to Shiranui who had let down his pistol "I agree this would be a pointless battle."

And with that, she all disappeared without a trace. Only leaving behind the skulking shadows in silence; Chizuru just stared at the ground though. And it was then that she realized her legs were fresh out of energy, she had run too far, and too fast. With all the pressure, she had become light headed without noticing. So she dropped to the ground in a mess of blood and tears. Her consciousness faded from her mind, and left her as an empty shell lying on the ground.

And as she faded away, she could hear the voices of Okita and Heisuke call out to her, begging. But while in the faded part of her mind, she had dreams. Well, not dreams, more like memories from when she was young; some of the memories, she actually didn't have any of them stored in her head. She was going through the last piece of faith she had. She watched herself flee from her village which she was born in, and watched herself go through her father's patients. Caring for each one like her life depended on it. She never thought once who they were, she just wanted to be of use. Wanted to have a role to play in this world; a place to be wanted, a place where she is able to stay to the end of her days.

But then came yet another memory, one concealed in darkness. It was of her and a golden haired boy. Chizuru was grabbed from behind by bandits, planning to sell her off to other merchants. Then when they turned, she saw a boy about her age, wielding a katana, swing at the bandits. And he didn't stop until each one was drenched in the smell of blood. He even got some on himself.

Chizuru watched herself embrace the boy in fear, looking for a hand to hold. She watched the boy lift up her face and press their foreheads together, in a calming way. She saw herself eventually drift off back to sleep in his arms. But this memory she had not yet seen. The boy carried her to her house, knock on the door and talk to her father.

'It's almost like they know each other….' Chizuru said faintly.

After speaking, the boy handed her over and exited the residence.

'Wait up,' Chizuru failed to say 'you still have more to say.'

Chizuru lifted a hand to stop the boy, but her hand slipped right through. Chizuru jumped back in surprise, trying not to strain her already sleepy body.

But without another moment, the memory changed to another one. It showed another one of the boy and her, he was visiting. They would play and go all around town together, just like any kid would. The boy smiled like an angel, unrelenting. He seemed to enjoy the company of her, but Chizuru felt confused. She saw this now, but she has no actual REAL memory of it. She can't remember the face of the boy, so in her visions, it remained blank. Faceless, like a puppet; while she thought of this, another memory appeared.

It was of her when she was around ten years old. She was in a room alone with the boy, intently looking at him with a happy expression.

"Promise, forever and ever?" Chizuru's face gawked at her words that she watched herself speak.

The boy brought their faces closer and spoke "Yes, I'll make you my bride when we're older, I swear on my life."

Younger Chizuru pulled away from him and said sadly "Don't say that; you're not going to die!"

The boy spoke again with a little laughter in his tone "I'm just kidding," he pulled them both together again "But no matter what, I will hold my promise." The boy lifted his head up and kissed her forehead.

'Who did,' Chizuru noted 'who is this boy? I want to know.' Chizuru lay deep in the arms of thought until the screen of her memories flickered to life yet again of when she was still ten, but in a different situation.

Chizuru watched herself in silence "You can't go! I won't allow you to! It's so unfair; you're so unfair to me! Why can't I go with you? You can't do that!"

Chizuru watched the boy in front of her younger self, he was standing up, but rock-still. He wouldn't move no matter how many times she hit him.

Finally, in the midst of her anger, the boy spoke "I'm sorry," he spoke with no emotion "But I can't have you come with me. There's a war coming, and you can't be there when it happens."

Her younger self shouted again "I don't care! I can learn to defend myself! So please…." She was starting to sob.

"I'm sorry." The boy knelt down next to Chizuru who was now on her knees, fighting with her own spirit to stand back up "But you can't remember me after this." He lifted her face and came closer.

The present Chizuru suddenly had her point of view changed. She was now seeing through her younger self's eyes. And this time she could see the boy's face. He had silky locks of blonde hair, and two shining red crimson rubies as eyes. His face came closer and closer, and unable to control herself, she fell into his control. Her eyes were halfway closed when something came to rest on her lips.

She felt something slither into her mouth, quickly delivering a small stone sized object. The boy's lips rested a little longer on her lips before departing from the kiss. He stared down into Chizuru's cloudy eyes that now looked at him as a stranger. But before she drifted off into a fantasy sleep, she had one last glimpse of the boy's hot cheeks let loose a small fountain of tears.

Then Chizuru was facing herself, her younger self in fact. Chizuru almost spoke before the little girl beat her to it "Hey miss, are you a demon."

Chizuru took a small step backwards while a few words spilled from her mouth "What are you talking about?" her tone failed in keeping calm.

"You don't need to hide it miss, I can see right through you." The little girl's eyes clouded up and she looked deeper into Chizuru "Demons are scary aren't they? They're going to all eat us alive unless we do something." She little girl let out a small demonic chuckle and in her place came a Rasetsu.

Not just any ordinary one either, he wore a Shinsengumi uniform and had his long drifting hair up in a tight pony tail. His eyes looked down upon her with a want for bloodshed, a want to harvest the blood in her veins. Chizuru fell backwards when the creature leaped forward.

But it quickly disintegrated when her eyes revealed to her Hijikata, he wore a strained face, saying something rapidly "Chizuru snap out of it, Chizuru!"

Chizuru realized what she was doing; she held her short sword only inches from the tip of Hijikata's forehead. He held her arms and hands, trying to prevent her from advancing any further. Blood ran down her arm, and her bangs were tangled in front of her face like ropes.

But when Chizuru fully took in her situation, she released her strength from the sword, and let go. Hijikata also had a hold of it, and he quickly threw it to the side.

"Hijikata what are you doing here?" Chizuru whispered to herself.

She looked around herself and saw that she was sitting on top of Hijikata, on his torso which had blood from her wound on it. That's when the door to her room was thrown open by the rest of the Shinsengumi, holding weapons at a fighting stance.

Sorry for being a bit late with this one! School has started back up so I may only be publishing on the weekends now! So there will be another chapter so you can find out Chizuru's dirty little secrets! _-


	12. Chapter 12 - Past Feelings

Chapter 12 – Past Feelings

Chizuru now sat to opposite of Hijikata, having her wound tended to by Heisuke. She hadn't yet gripped the very heart of her situation, but it proved enough just by feeling the hot, intense stares of the Shinsengumi. They all held their weapons, but thankfully, they were all sheathed. Hijikata seemed to draw off an aura of black and violet. It encased him in a thick frame where only he could speak to himself.

"Chizuru," Hijikata's sudden voice made Chizuru jump a bit.

"Be careful Chizuru, I'm trying my best not to hurt you." Heisuke said while wrapping up her shoulder.

She looked towards Heisuke, finding an excuse to not have to meet with Hijikata's cold stare "R-Right."

"Chizuru," Hijikata repeated himself to show he was serious "I can't have excuses for what you did."

This time, Chizuru looked up towards him, but just barely enough to see his lips speak "I'm sorry." She whimpered.

"I don't need an apology," Hijikata almost yelled which made Chizuru jerk her head up the rest of the way "What I need is an explanation."

Okita spoke up from his corner "Don't think about lying either, Chizuru."

Chizuru glanced back at him, as well as the rest of the men in the room. They all had the same look as when they first met her. It made her feel so cold inside, seeing all the distrust in their faces.

"Chi—," Hijikata almost began to repeat himself before Chizuru intervened.

"It was a dream." She looked back down, hands in her lap.

"A dream you say?"

Chizuru nodded at the ground "Yes, it showed me when I was younger; playing with a boy that saved me from slave traders."

"Oh, you told me about that story." Okita said with a voice of recognition.

"Yes," she nodded again "It showed every time we had ever been together, and the time he—" Chizuru paused, and decided to rethink, so she left out the part where he proposed.

"He made me swallow a pill, and then I blacked out."

"Did you see what the pill looked like?" Sannan asked.

Chizuru looked to him and shook her head in denial "No, I didn't."

She looked back to the ground, but made her gaze rise a bit higher this time "But after that, I became face to face with my younger self, and she spoke to me."

Sano was the next to speak "What did she say?"

"She said," Chizuru's eyes partially widened a bit to the realization of what her younger self said, and with that, she spoke exactly what the little girl had told her "she asked me if I was a demon."

The Shinsengumi's faces grew in intensity at the shock, but Chizuru continued "You don't need to hide it miss, I can see right through you." Chizuru's own face began to reveal her true fright "But then the girl's eyes changed, they became mysterious, almost demonic and she spoke again. She said Demons are scary, aren't they? They're going to eat us alive unless we do something."

"Anything else," Hijikata clarified.

"She laughed." Chizuru sat there a moment trying to understand the younger her. But then throughout her mind echoed the little girl's laughter; she looked frantically around the room to see if someone was laughing, trying to make a joke out of the matter. Unfortunately, no one was; then she held her head in pain, keeping her head down to avoid suspicion. But then the uncontrollable pain was kicked up a notch, and she jerked her head up in a screech of pain.

Heisuke leaped forward and tried to hold her down "Chizuru, calm down!"

Then, in an enchanted second, a strange feeling exploded throughout Chizuru's body. It suddenly felt so warm, yet she had a yearning for a certain substance.

"Blood…" she managed to choke out.

Then Chizuru's hair began to change to a pure platinum color, and her eyes grew to a yellow-golden color. And when Chizuru looked around, everything had changed. She saw bright red shapes lunge after her, along with the several voices that followed. They all shouted her name while holding her down to the ground.

"Let me go!" Chizuru screamed at the top of her lungs in hopes of them leaving her. But unfortunately, the shapes would not let go.

Soon a frightening wave of shock passed through her body and she manage to throw off the creatures off her body. She made a vicious leap for her sword and managed to grab it. She stood in front of the open door, keeping an eye on the creatures which surrounded her front.

Trickles of sweat ran down her neck and face, and the red creatures pulsed along with the pace of her heartbeat. She noticed the one on her far left move slightly closer so she turned quickly towards that one and raised her sword in a threat.

"Don't move, you monsters!" though she did her best to sound threatening, her voice failed her by cracking at the last note.

She closed her eyes tightly trying to say to herself that this was all some dream she needed to wake up from. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't wake up. Every time she opened her eyes back up, she saw the same nightmare.

One of the red creature's faces looked up, and because Chizuru thought he was preparing something, she raised her sword again, but when she almost let it down, a sharp pain came from the top of her spine, and then it wriggled all the way down her back.

Her knees buckled over and she fell to the ground. She tried to turn her head around to see what had attacked her. It was another red creature, or monster it seemed to Chizuru. When she finally hit the ground tears fell from her face as she tried to move. Her arms where limp, and her legs had gone slack; nothing she did helped herself. None of her muscles were responding to her command, and then she felt something hit the back of her neck again.

This time it was a fatal blow, as the red creatures advanced onto her, everything went black. Nothing she saw made sense anymore; this yearning for bloodlust, the monsters of red, and the sudden reaction of her reflexes; but then she found one word which did make sense to her.

"Kazama…." Then she drifted off into a world of sleep, full of comfort and worries.

~'~~'~~'~~'~~'~~

Kazama Chikage

He turned around in reaction to the change of wind. It smelled different, but he knew why. He didn't look like he worried, but what just happened had been his fault. He almost started heading in that direction before Amagiri noticed his intentions.

"Kazama, the Satsuma told us to head to this position." He gave Kazama a blank stare to show that he wasn't playing around.

"I know." He looked back at Amagiri in irritation. He walked towards him knowing he took defeat.

Amagiri noticed his attitude and asked "Is that female demon troubling you?"

Kazama didn't look at him but deepened his expression then responded "No, what's happening to her is what's troubling me."

"I see."

They walked the rest of the way in silence. Though Kazama could say more, he chose not too, since only he could reverse the pill's effects.

Shinsengumi HQ

They all sat in silence, looking in pity down at Chizuru's sleeping face.

"If I did any further damage than I meant," Yamazaki bowed in apology "I apologize in advance."

"You did what had to be done." Hijikata noted.

Chizuru moved slightly in Hijikata's lap in reaction to Hijikata turning his body to look at Yamazaki.

"But what was that about exactly?" Heisuke sounded slightly disturbed at the memory of Chizuru's sudden transformation.

Everyone raised their heads at that question; they all were obviously looking for the same answer. But when Sannan spoke, they grew even more deeply concerned.

"Do you think she might've taken the 'Ochimizu'?" he looked up at Hijikata with an aura of seriousness surround him.

"No, that's impossible, if she was, she would've tried attacking all of us, not back away and calling us…." His voice drifted off as he couldn't bring himself to say the last word, but, Okita finished it for him.

"You mean monsters, Hijikata?" Hijikata looked up in a way to tell Okita telepathically to 'be quiet'.

Okita only replied with a sly smile.

"Knock it off Souji; this is more serious than you probably think." Sano snapped at him.

Okita replied sarcastically "Right."

"Anyway," Koundo started "Chizuru should be with someone 24/7 starting from now on. She can still be allowed to go out on patrol, but she needs to be kept in front of the person watching over her. If anything happens, report back immediately." And with that, the conference for Chizuru ended, and the next thing she noticed was the ceiling when she woke up in the study of Hijikata.

The Shinsengumi decided to have Hijikata guard her for the time being, and see how she does.

Chizuru sat up and looked around the room. She knew it wasn't hers as soon as she saw the collection of poetry on a shelf. She saw a man with long black hair sitting at a desk, writing something on a sheet of paper. His long black hair was down, and he wore a kimono of purple.

Chizuru raised a hand to her chin as if it would help her think harder.

"Umm…" Chizuru started, but she had no need to end it because the man of mystery had turned around.

"Oh, so you're up now?" with his hair down, Hijikata looked almost heavenly. His dark locks of hair swayed so perfectly, if it hadn't been for the broad shoulder, she might've mistaken him for a woman.

"Hijikata?" the bafflement on Chizuru's face was obviously visible to Hijikata.

Hijikata turned to face Chizuru, and then began his questions "Do you remember anything?"

Chizuru looked up and thought for a moment "What do you mean by that?"

Hijikata leaned in a bit closer and said "Try and remember to the time before you fell asleep."

Chizuru leaned back and closed her eyes to concentrate. She tried to think back to when she fell asleep. Then she looked up to Hijikata to answer "Wasn't I with Okita and Heisuke?"

Hijikata leaned back to his original manner of sitting and sighed "Anything after that?"

"No, I just fell asleep and ended up here," Chizuru began to think of where she was and when she did, curiosity eventually found its way to her head "Speaking of what happened, Hijikata,"

"What is it?" he looked up at her.

"Why am I here in your study?"

Hijikata looked down at her with the concerned face that a mother would hold for her child "Under specific reasons, I'm going to look after you until some circumstances are met."

"What kind of circumstances?" her voice had the perking sense of suspicion in it.

"That's confidential until your memories have returned."

Chizuru backed off, knowing what the taste of defeat was. But no matter what she did to suppress the curiosity in her, it always got the best of her. So for the remainder of that day, Hijikata followed her around as she did the chores, he occasionally helped out now and then too.

When Hijikata had to go into meetings, another captain had to take watch over her until it was over. And while on patrol, the captain that was watching her made sure to have her stand in front of him.

Everything in those moments made it all feel so far away. She use to laugh so freely with the rest of them, and now they seemed like strangers to her; strangers with a knack of sensitivity.


	13. Chapter 13 - Lost at Battle

Chapter 13 – Lost at Battle

Chizuru's shadow swept over the wet, soon to be dry, floor. Chizuru was trying extra hard this time, it almost seemed as if the birds singing overhead in the trees encouraged her. So with all her pride, she pressed the cloth to the ground and ran through the hallways, making sure every inch of floor had not a speck of dust on it. When she was nearly done, the muscles in her arms had already run themselves sore. And with that warning, her muscles gave up and left her to make a loud, unsettling noise in the hallway.

She fell forward and hit her head hard against the stern, rough floor. She sat up and held her head in pain. Small tears welled up in her eyes as she tried to make the laughing pain subside and go away. In the midst of all this the door she fell next to opened to reveal from the shadows, Hijikata, Vice Commander of the Shinsengumi.

"Chizuru," he leaned down next to her and looked at her reddening forehead "Did you fall?" he asked.

Chizuru looked up shyly at the commander's handsome face. Recently, she found herself yearning to see him more than usual. This confused her, for first wanting to be with Kazama, then suddenly this.

"Chizuru," Hijikata persisted.

Chizuru only just realized how long she had been staring at him. Her face reddened as she quickly stood up. She brushed her pants off and looked down at her feet in a bow.

She closed her eyes when she looked back up "I'm so sorry Hijikata, I'll go on and continue now, I'm deeply sorry if I bothered you."

She lowered her head again as she thought he would be disappointed in her clumsiness.

"You didn't do anything wrong Chizuru," even though he wasn't smiling, Chizuru knew he meant what he said "Everyone trips every once in a while."

Chizuru looked up at him in surprise, but then he actually smiled. But something changed when she read deep into his expression. Kazama's face appeared over his and overlapped all of Hijikata's features in an instant. She jumped back in fear, and not having her sword with her frightened her even more. But then he reached out and took her shoulder.

"Chizuru, are you alright?" she heard Hijikata's voice appear somewhere in between the lines of her subconscious.

"Huh?"She was still standing up, everything still clearing itself out. But when everything was finally clear, the first thing that greeted her was the amazingly close face of Hijikata.

"Do you have a fever?" he reached his hands out to check her forehead, but Chizuru up a blockade with her hands to make sure that his didn't get any closer.

"I'm fine, honestly." Her face grew a little hot when she spoke.

He straightened back up and sighed "Fine then, just don't push yourself past your limit." He looked away into the garden.

"Oh my," a man with long black hair, a bit shorter than Hijikata's stepped outside next to them "What has happened here?"

Chizuru straightened herself up even more, because it would be disrespectful to not do so. Itou taught young men how to use the sword. He was very famous, and a trustworthy friend of the shogun. Chizuru held her hands together and squeezed them tightly. She knew that most everyone in the Shinsengumi besides Heisuke disliked him. But he had very good connections with most everyone important and he could easily take on an experienced fighter.

Chizuru straightened up a bit more then spoke in a polite manner "I fell, I'm sorry if I disturbed you." She bowed in apology to Itou.

"No no," he waved his fan a little then brought it back up to his face "you have done nothing wrong at all, we were just talking." He made his sentence sound a little irritating.

Hijikata let out a grunt quiet enough to make sure that Itou couldn't hear. Then he turned to Chizuru, back to his normal serious expression.

"Do you think you could prepare some tea for us? Just bring it back to this room here." He motioned with his head towards the door.

Chizuru nodded and said "Yes sir."

As quickly as Chizuru had left, she brought back the steaming tea that warmed her face to the touch. She almost felt envious when she had to give it away, but that was her role while she was with the Shinsengumi.

Chizuru stayed in the room with Itou and Hijikata in case either of them would need to want a refill. Sitting on the sidelines was sort of a bore for Chizuru, the most she could do to help was tend to the wounded during battles and raids.

"Now, let me here your request, Itou." Hijikata's voice brought Chizuru back to reality and at attention.

"Ah yes," Itou put on a teasing smile "I've almost completely forgot about that." Chizuru and Hijikata could easily tell that was a white lie.

"I would like to take a leave of the Shinsengumi."

"Huh?" Hijikata's voice sounded almost urgent, both Chizuru and he were surprised "What do you mean?"

"I mean just as I said." He hid his smirk behind his fan while speaking "I have been requested my presence elsewhere, so I cannot continue on here."

Hijikata looked down in silence. Chizuru worried for his concerns, but she could do nothing on the sidelines. Hijikata's expression held both anger and irritation.

He then walked over to the sliding door on the other side of the room opposite from Chizuru. He slid it open and behind it were the embodiments of Saito and Heisuke, as well as several other members of the Shinsengumi.

"Heisuke," Chizuru accidentally said it aloud, as she had not meant to.

Hijikata closed both his eyes and said to them "Is this what you meant?"

Chizuru's head fast forwarded through the meeting, like it had just been another one. But this one only held sadness and departing. Heisuke said he had wanted to find out what was really right in the world. And Saito told Chizuru what he truly thought as well. She knew it was their personal choices, but she couldn't think of a Shinsengumi without them. Everything would seem strange and foreign.

The next day they departed with a single farewell. To Chizuru, farewells were just as sad as forever goodbyes, she knew she would get the chance to see them again, but still, sadness consumed her full.

For the rest of the night she lay there and thought of the other goodbyes she had to put up with. And the last one she filed was Kazama. Without her noticing, tears filled her eyes. She sat up in her futon and touched her cheeks.

"Why am I crying?" she said silently.

Suddenly, her heartbeat started beating irregularly. An impulse of thirst exploded inside her throat. She fell back down onto her futon holding her throat in pain. Screams escaped through her lips, but they seemed no less than roars from a wounded animal. She coughed and coughed until finally it only seemed like she was out of breath. She bit her lip as if it would cover up all the pain under a rug, but it had no such effect.

Her eyes grew warm and hot. Eventually, it was as if they were burning. Even more tears started to flood down her cheeks. The door to her room flew open and she tried her best to turn and see who it was. Hijikata stood in the doorway of the door. But, that immediately changed. In place of his elegant stature stood Kazama, face and all; he looked down on her with pity.

"You truly are starting to look more and more like a Rasetsu." He drew his sword on her and pointed it. Then after a moment he sheathed it and leaned down next to her.

Her heart skipped a beat when his face grew closer. But before he was connected, he took something from the hidden part of his kimono. It was a small pill the shape of a small nutshell. He looked at a bit longer than he should, because he turned to the door and disappeared without a trace. Chizuru felt sadness bottling her up, no comfort was there, none at all. Darkness had begun to swallow her whole before she heard footsteps running down the hallway. The door was thrown open by the men of the Shinsengumi. She couldn't stay awake long enough to see who was by her side first.

The next morning Chizuru awoke, she saw the sun streaming in through the crack in the door. She was all curled up in a ball in her futon. The sun almost blinded her before she sat up. She thought back to the events of the previous night.

'Had it all been in a dream?'

She tried to remember all the important events, like the pain surging through her body, and the Shinsengumi, and Kazama. She looked surprised even though it happened many hours ago. She pressed her hands to her forehead in a manner someone who do in deep thought or what someone would do to keep sweat from pouring.

'It couldn't have been a dream, the pain was too real.'

She thought about his breath on the side of her cheek. The very thought made her blush.

"Thinking of something naughty Chizuru?" the sudden voice suddenly made her jump.

She turned towards the source and none other than Okita sat there "I'm watching over you for now, Hijikata's in a meeting."

"Oh, I see…" she slowly looked away, she didn't seem to mind at all if he was there or not. The only thing that remained on her mind at all that morning was the deep shadows of Kazama's face.

"Are you okay?" Okita didn't put on a face of concern, but a face of simple enjoyment. Was he enjoying her melancholy?

"Yes, but Okita," Chizuru started to talk very shyly.

"Yes?"

Chizuru bowed her head low as her face began to swell up like a red apple "Would you mind getting out of my room while I get dressed?"

Okita wore a surprised face for a split second before a silly grin with laughter implanted split his face.

"It's not funny…" Chizuru almost shouted at his response.

He got up, still broken up from laughter. He slid open the door but stopped a moment to say something. She knew it would be something inappropriate, so she hurried over to him and pushed him outside the door. She closed it quickly behind him, her face reddening by the second. Outside, she could still Okita's laughter as it filled the air.


End file.
